Exploration Of The Validity Of Online Store Transfer

Online stores,as virtual property defined under Article 127 of the Civil Code,are difficult to be located in traditional law.However,Article 127 of the Civil Code is a leading article,which only establishes the basic purpose that online stores are protected by the Civil Code,without any specific regulation on how to protect them.In this article,the author believes that online stores are equipped with the characteristics of both claims and property rights,and the transfer of online stores should be regulated by analogy to the relevant norms in civil code and other regulations at this stage.Chapter one of this article provides a summary description of online stores and their transfers,and introduces the three core issues that this article needs to discuss.Firstly,for the legal characteristics of online stores,online stores,as a new type of property different from traditional concepts,are formally-virtual,datary-essential,and property-value-independent;secondly,online stores have disposability and publicity and thus are rational as a trading subject.And here come three issues that escalate during their transfer: Firstly,the uncertainty of legal nature and ownership of online stores make it difficult to classify them into existing civil law systems;Secondly,the relationship between the subject and the transfer of the trading subject of the online store is not limited to a simple property transfer relationship but includes the transfer of rights and obligations;Thirdly,since the transfer involves the transfer of rights and obligations,the platform,as the original contracting party,whose refusing of the transfer of online stores would affect the effectiveness of the contract.Chapter two of this article,in view of judicial practice,discusses the effectiveness of the transfer of online stores and conducts an in-depth analysis of the above three issues.The courts have not reached a unified conclusion on the effectiveness of the transfer contract of online stores,thought courts that support the validity of the contract still account for the majority.Courts that deny the effectiveness of the contract basically adopt the viewpoint of the judgments of the 2015 Li Lei v.Yao Junmin and Zhejiang Taobao Network Co.,Ltd.sales contract disputes and the 2016 Wang Yong v.Wang Fan and other sales contract disputes.These courts generally respond to the above three issues along with the following judgment ideas: Firstly,non-independent shops like Taobao stores are not objects of property rights but only enjoyed by the operator for operating rights;Secondly,in view of the conclusion of the first issue,the essence of the transfer of online stores is that the transferor transfers the relationship of rights and obligations between them and the platform to the transferee.Thirdly,as for the role of the network platform in the transfer of online stores,as the platform has the management function to the operator and a special public characteristic in status,the application of Article 555 and Article 716 of the Civil Code needs to be discussed,and the impact of relevant format clauses such as “Platform Service Agreement” on the effectiveness of the transfer of online stores is not entirely reasonable.Chapter three of this article conducts a theoretical analysis to solve the effectiveness recognition of the transfer of online stores across the following dimensions: Firstly,for the legal nature and ownership of online stores,online stores have dual legal characteristic of both property and debt.The ownership of internal production factors belongs to users,and the ownership of sub-domain names belongs to platforms.Secondly,there is a tripartite relationship within the transfer relationship of online stores: The sale and purchase contract relationship between the transferor and the transferee,which includes the disposal relationship of virtual property rights;The“lease” relationship of the virtual network space-sub-domain name;The transferor and the platform originally had a service contract relationship,and if the transferee wants to continue operating the online store,they must conclude a new service contract relationship with the platform.Thirdly,as for the role of network platforms in the transfer of online stores,as the platform has the management function to operators and a special public characteristic in status,the application of Article 555 and Article 716 of the Civil Code need to be discussed,and the impact of relevant format clauses such as “Platform Service Agreement” on the effectiveness of the transfer of online stores is not entirely reasonable.Therefore,this article believes that for the effectiveness of the transfer contract of online stores,there are two contract subject matters: virtual property elements and virtual network space.As for platform rules,indeed,they will have an impact on the effectiveness of the transfer of online stores,but it is unreasonable to deny the effectiveness of the transfer of online stores because the platform does not provide technical support for the transfer.The transfer of online stores by operators is part of their legitimate rights and also a need to promote the development of the market economy.However,for the issue of whether online stores can be transferred and the effectiveness of such transfers,it ultimately depends on the standard of the platform’s intention in accordance with existing laws.For the conclusion’s lack of reasonability,there requires an urgent need for unified relevant standards.