City grants first licenses for individual online stores
The city's first business operation licenses to individual online shop vendors
Yuan Qiuyuan, an online cosmetics shop owner with two years of operation, receives a business operation license.
The city's market watchdog granted the first business operation licenses to individual online shop vendors on Friday, allowing the registration of URLs for online stores of individuals.
China's first e-commerce law, effective from January, rules that e-commerce businesses need to register as business entities. However, individual online shop operators could not get an operation license because they don't have bricks-and-mortar stores, the Shanghai Market Supervision and Management Bureau said.
They could not conduct business operations if they failed to register, according to the law, said Zhang Jingping, an official with the Jiading District Market Supervision and Management Bureau.
Online store operators can apply for the business license at administrative offices for industry and commerce now with their identification cards or residence permits after receiving proof of the use of online operation venues from e-commerce sites like Taobao and JD.com.
It takes half an hour to get the license after application, according to Zhang.
Yuan Qiuyuan, an online cosmetics shop owner who has been operating for two years, said a business license finally makes her store legal.
