ACTION in the form of investigations will be taken against any business entity suspected in infringing the law without any hesitation, a warning to all enterprises especially those functioning on the online platforms or e-commerce platforms that have been found guilty of certain practices.
This was a call made by the Malaysian Competition Commission (MyCC) after popular e-commerce platform Shopee has been the subject of public complaints due to its questionable delivery system.
In light of the matter, Shopee has been ordered to provide the commission with a reasoning over public complaints that have been escalating in recent months.
In a statement, MyCC chief executive officer Iskandar Ismail said, “Shopee is now required to provide the MyCC with the justification to its conduct and a detailed account on how these issues will be addressed internally without further jeopardising users’ interest by end of October 2022.
“As digital economy is the future in fuelling economic growth, it is important to ensure that the online marketplace platforms provide a conducive environment for the onboarded users, Most importantly, we will not hesitate to invoke our investigation and enforcement powers against any enterprise suspected of infringing the law,” he stated.
Due to the serious nature of its delivery, the commission on Oct 19 engaged with Shopee Mobile Malaysia to gain a better understanding of the online marketplace platform industry and the logistic industry that provides the first and last mile delivery services to these platforms.
“We understand the current challenges that the industry players are facing. However, it should not stop them from providing the best services to the users. In this regard, we will continue our efforts in closely monitoring their future actions to address the recent issues and other competition concerns related to their platforms,” the commission said.
Thus, MyCC welcomes and acknowledges the innovation by the industry players which has drastically improved the online shopping experience for all Malaysians.
However, the commission at the same time also believes that the industry players need to be mindful of their respective conducts in this dynamic industry that may raise any competition concerns and may cause harm to their users including the end consumers and merchants. – Oct 21, 2022
Main photo credit: Vinculum blog
