BRICS bloc deepens collaboration on ecommerce and selling services across borders

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Threat of cross-border data tariffs looms over WTO

Some countries call for moratorium to be lifted, tech industry not keen on potential costs

Dan Robinson Wed 15 Jun 2022 // 11:51 UTC

Concern is growing that a World Trade Organization (WTO) moratorium on cross-border tariffs covering data may not be extended, which would hit e-commerce if countries decide to introduce such tariffs.
Representatives of the WTO's 164 members are meeting in Geneva as part of a multi-day ministerial conference. June 15 was to be the final day but the trade organization today confirmed it is being extended until June 16, to facilitate outcomes on the main issues under discussion.
The current moratorium covering e-commerce tariffs was introduced in 1998, and so far the WTO has extended it at such meetings, which typically take place every two years.

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Facebook rated least safe e-commerce option in government rankings

Singapore's safety scheme measures scam-combatting capability

Laura Dobberstein Tue 17 May 2022 // 07:55 UTC

A newly implemented e-commerce rating system in the city-state of Singapore has rated Facebook's Marketplace as the least trustworthy e-commerce platform, behind Amazon and its Alibaba-owned Asian analogue Lazada.
The ratings system, known as the E-commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings (TSR) [PDF], was launched on May 14th by the Inter-Ministry Committee on Scams (IMCS).
The four-tier rating scheme rates e-commerce players on guarantees of user authenticity, transaction safety, dispute resolution, and ability to act effectively to protect customers.

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Indian giant Tata fluffs its lines as it takes on Amazon and Walmart

Shouldn't a company from the same stable as Tata Consulting Services do better with a day one traffic flood?

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 11 Apr 2022 // 04:45 UTC

Giant Indian industrial conglomerate Tata has launched its attempt to rival Amazon.com and Walmart's e-commerce efforts, but suffered a bad case of the first day scalability jitters.
India's e-commerce market is dominated by Amazon.com and Walmart-owned Flipkart, each of which enjoys around one third market share. Indian netizens enjoy the convenience of those services, but the nation's government has introduced laws designed to make life a little harder for foreign e-commerce players – in line with local sentiment and government promotions that emphasize the virtue of supporting local businesses.
No Indian business is bigger than Tata – a conglomerate that spans technology services, steelmaking, energy, housing, cars, chemicals, and even India's incarnation of Starbucks. The company's many tentacles also reach online through a grocery delivery service, electronics retailing, and online pharmacy.

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China tells big tech to reveal some customers' income

Livestreamed infomercials are huge, but some creators aren't paying tax

Laura Dobberstein Thu 31 Mar 2022 // 07:58 UTC

China's massive live-streaming industry is the next target of China's tech regulation blitz, with three governmental agencies announcing a requirement for operators to register in an attempt to eliminate tax evasion.
The three regulatory bodies – the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the State Taxation Administration (STA) and the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) – issued a notice on "regulating the profit-making behavior of online live broadcasting" that details the changes and requirements to the $30 billion industry. The audience for live-streaming in the Middle Kingdom topped 700 million people last year, according to Statista.
While the law bans live streamers from selling products via rumor-mongering, self-rewarding or false publicity – such as self-tipping to promote hype and garner real tips – it more pointedly prohibits tax evasion, It's a signal that Beijing is eager to catch the tax revenues associated with variable part-time self-employment.

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Dems propose privacy-respecting digital dollar

ECASH Act calls for Treasury to develop electronic currency, no blockchain required

Thomas Claburn in San Francisco Mon 28 Mar 2022 // 11:00 UTC

House Democrats on Monday plan to introduce a law bill that calls for the development of an electronic version of the US dollar that has the same legal status and privacy expectations as physical currency.
The bill, titled Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware (ECASH) Act, would direct the US Treasury Department to establish a program to coordinate the development and implementation of e-cash and the technology necessary to support it, such as cryptographic hardware.
Sponsored by Rep Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Chairman of the Task Force on Financial Technology, and by Rep Jesús "Chuy" García (D-IL), who serves on the Committee on Financial Services, the ECASH Act represents a response to recent calls by the US Federal Reserve and the Biden administration to promote the development of digital assets.

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Google opens Play Store to third party payment systems – starting with Spotify

Did lessons learned from South Korea make it all less scary?

Laura Dobberstein Fri 25 Mar 2022 // 06:02 UTC

Google has revealed a shift of policy that means it is inclined to allow third-party party payment systems access to its Play Store.
The digital dominator announced a pilot in select countries that "will allow a small number of participating developers to offer an additional billing option next to Google Play's billing system."
Google has already lined up a crash test dummy willing "to explore different implementations of user-choice billing": audio streaming giant Spotify, which will introduce Google Play's billing system alongside its own.

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Thailand bans use of crypto for payments

Regulators worry about financial stability if binary Baht spread

Laura Dobberstein Thu 24 Mar 2022 // 08:45 UTC

Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Wednesday a ban on using cryptocurrencies and other digital assets as a means of making payments.
Trade in the digital currencies will continue to be permitted, but as assets only.
The ban goes into effect on April 1, but digital assets payment operators will be given a grace period through the end of the month.

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Adobe warns of second critical security hole in Adobe Commerce, Magento

As sanctioned Russian infosec firm says it has working exploit code

Gareth Corfield Fri 18 Feb 2022 // 19:20 UTC

Adobe has put out a warning about another critical security bug affecting its Magento/Adobe Commerce product – and IT pros need to install a second patch after an initial update earlier this week failed to fully plug the first one.
You need to apply both patches, in order.
The new vuln has also been assigned a severity rating of the 9.8 on the CVSS scale – the same as its predecessor, for which Adobe issued an out-of-bounds patch earlier in the week. It's tracked as CVE-2022-24087 and – like the earlier vuln, CVE-2022-24086 – impacts both Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce.

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Alibaba splits itself into Chinese and overseas ops

Seeks world domination through 'diversified business governance'

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 6 Dec 2021 // 06:01 UTC

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is splitting in two.
Or as the company put it in a blog post: "Alibaba Introduces More Agile Organizational Structure to Accelerate Domestic and International Growth."
The structure will see a new unit called "International Digital Commerce" deal with retail and wholesale customers outside China. Current Taobao and Tmall president Jiang Fan will lead the organisation, which will include AliExpress, Alibaba.com and Southeast-Asia centric e-tailer Lazada.

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European Cybercrime Centre confident it's kicked credit card crims – again

Poised to reveal similar haul to 2020's €40M loss prevention total

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Thu 2 Dec 2021 // 08:21 UTC

The European Cybercrime Centre has again acted against credit card fraud and is poised to reveal success on a similar scale to its 2020 campaign that prevented €40 million of losses.
Jorge Rosal Cosano, a team leader at the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), today told CyberCrimeCon 21 – an event convened by threat-hunting and security software company Group-IB – that 2021 has seen an increase in denial-of-service attacks accompanied by ransom demands. Another very 2021 attack is phishing that fakes messages from parcel delivery firms.
Credit card fraud has also persisted, with crims conducting ongoing campaigns to acquire card numbers and use them to make unauthorised purchases. Cosano related how EC3 resolved to reduce the impact of carding by trying to find card numbers before they're used so the Centre can inform banks and victims as soon as possible.

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