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postgraduate thesis: Opportunities for cross-border e-commerce in the context of the digital economy and the challenges of retail import smuggling and data crime

TitleOpportunities for cross-border e-commerce in the context of the digital economy and the challenges of retail import smuggling and data crime
Authors
Issue Date2024
PublisherThe University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong)
Citation
Ren, S. [任思銘], Lau, C. Y. S. [劉倬昕]. (2024). Opportunities for cross-border e-commerce in the context of the digital economy and the challenges of retail import smuggling and data crime. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR.
AbstractCross-border e-commerce, as an emerging global business model, has played an important role in promoting international trade and economic growth. However, with the rapid expansion of this industry, various types of crimes related to it are increasing, posing serious challenges to social order and economic security. This paper aims to explore the crime issues arising from cross-border e-commerce, especially the legal and regulatory challenges related to smuggling, tax evasion, and data crimes, and to propose strategies to deal with them. The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce has provided new criminal opportunities for lawbreakers. Currently, the crime problem in cross-border e-commerce is mainly reflected in the prevalence of smuggling and tax evasion. Unlawful merchants circumvent tariffs and import restrictions by understating the value of goods, misclassifying product categories, and splitting bulk goods. Such behaviour not only results in the loss of national tax revenue, but also undermines fair competition in the market and seriously affects the survival environment of legitimate merchants. At the same time, data crimes are particularly prominent in cross-border ecommerce. With the increase in the volume of transactions and the growing sophistication of technical means, the phenomenon of illegally obtaining, tampering with or misusing transaction data has been increasing. This type of data crime not only poses a threat to the security of consumers' personal information, but may also give rise to a wider range of economic crimes, including fraud and money laundering. These issues show that data security has become an important topic that cannot be ignored in the field of cross-border e-commerce. Another area of concern is the compliance of third-party platforms in cross-border e-commerce. Unlawful merchants use unregistered or illegally operated platforms to conduct transactions, thereby evading regulation. This phenomenon not only increases the difficulty of law enforcement, but also further exacerbates criminal activities in cross-border e-commerce and amplifies the negative impact on the social and economic order. To address these complex criminal challenges, a systematic response is needed at both the legal and regulatory levels. First, at the legal level, it is important to improve relevant laws and regulations, especially in the areas of e-commerce and international trade, and to strengthen the punishment of smuggling, tax evasion and data offences. Existing legal frameworks often struggle to cope with new forms of crime in cross-border e-commerce, making it particularly urgent to update and improve legislation. At the regulatory level, building a comprehensive cross-departmental regulatory system is key to effectively combating cross-border e-commerce offences. Government departments should strengthen cross-departmental co-operation and use technical means to conduct real-time monitoring of cross-border e-commerce transactions in order to improve the efficiency of detecting and combating various types of crimes. In particular, the regulation of third-party platforms should set stricter access standards and ongoing compliance checks to reduce the opportunities for unscrupulous merchants to take advantage of loopholes in the platforms to carry out illegal activities. International cooperation usually plays an indispensable role in combating cross-border ecommerce crimes. As cross-border e-commerce inherently involves multinational transactions, information sharing and law enforcement co-operation between governments is particularly important. By strengthening international co-operation, the threat of crime in cross-border ecommerce can be dealt with more effectively, so as to maintain a fair and orderly trade environment on a global scale. In summary, cross-border e-commerce has brought great development opportunities to the global economy, but it is also accompanied by complex criminal challenges. By improving laws and regulations, strengthening the regulatory system and promoting international cooperation, we can effectively reduce the risk of crime in cross-border e-commerce while promoting the healthy development of the industry.
DegreeMaster of Social Sciences
SubjectSmuggling - China
Transnational crime - China
Electronic commerce - China
Dept/ProgramCriminology
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/352819

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorRen, Siming-
dc.contributor.author任思銘-
dc.contributor.authorLau, Cheuk Yan Samantha-
dc.contributor.author劉倬昕-
dc.date.accessioned2025-01-08T06:46:25Z-
dc.date.available2025-01-08T06:46:25Z-
dc.date.issued2024-
dc.identifier.citationRen, S. [任思銘], Lau, C. Y. S. [劉倬昕]. (2024). Opportunities for cross-border e-commerce in the context of the digital economy and the challenges of retail import smuggling and data crime. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR.-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/352819-
dc.description.abstractCross-border e-commerce, as an emerging global business model, has played an important role in promoting international trade and economic growth. However, with the rapid expansion of this industry, various types of crimes related to it are increasing, posing serious challenges to social order and economic security. This paper aims to explore the crime issues arising from cross-border e-commerce, especially the legal and regulatory challenges related to smuggling, tax evasion, and data crimes, and to propose strategies to deal with them. The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce has provided new criminal opportunities for lawbreakers. Currently, the crime problem in cross-border e-commerce is mainly reflected in the prevalence of smuggling and tax evasion. Unlawful merchants circumvent tariffs and import restrictions by understating the value of goods, misclassifying product categories, and splitting bulk goods. Such behaviour not only results in the loss of national tax revenue, but also undermines fair competition in the market and seriously affects the survival environment of legitimate merchants. At the same time, data crimes are particularly prominent in cross-border ecommerce. With the increase in the volume of transactions and the growing sophistication of technical means, the phenomenon of illegally obtaining, tampering with or misusing transaction data has been increasing. This type of data crime not only poses a threat to the security of consumers' personal information, but may also give rise to a wider range of economic crimes, including fraud and money laundering. These issues show that data security has become an important topic that cannot be ignored in the field of cross-border e-commerce. Another area of concern is the compliance of third-party platforms in cross-border e-commerce. Unlawful merchants use unregistered or illegally operated platforms to conduct transactions, thereby evading regulation. This phenomenon not only increases the difficulty of law enforcement, but also further exacerbates criminal activities in cross-border e-commerce and amplifies the negative impact on the social and economic order. To address these complex criminal challenges, a systematic response is needed at both the legal and regulatory levels. First, at the legal level, it is important to improve relevant laws and regulations, especially in the areas of e-commerce and international trade, and to strengthen the punishment of smuggling, tax evasion and data offences. Existing legal frameworks often struggle to cope with new forms of crime in cross-border e-commerce, making it particularly urgent to update and improve legislation. At the regulatory level, building a comprehensive cross-departmental regulatory system is key to effectively combating cross-border e-commerce offences. Government departments should strengthen cross-departmental co-operation and use technical means to conduct real-time monitoring of cross-border e-commerce transactions in order to improve the efficiency of detecting and combating various types of crimes. In particular, the regulation of third-party platforms should set stricter access standards and ongoing compliance checks to reduce the opportunities for unscrupulous merchants to take advantage of loopholes in the platforms to carry out illegal activities. International cooperation usually plays an indispensable role in combating cross-border ecommerce crimes. As cross-border e-commerce inherently involves multinational transactions, information sharing and law enforcement co-operation between governments is particularly important. By strengthening international co-operation, the threat of crime in cross-border ecommerce can be dealt with more effectively, so as to maintain a fair and orderly trade environment on a global scale. In summary, cross-border e-commerce has brought great development opportunities to the global economy, but it is also accompanied by complex criminal challenges. By improving laws and regulations, strengthening the regulatory system and promoting international cooperation, we can effectively reduce the risk of crime in cross-border e-commerce while promoting the healthy development of the industry. -
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherThe University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong)-
dc.relation.ispartofHKU Theses Online (HKUTO)-
dc.rightsThe author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.subject.lcshSmuggling - China-
dc.subject.lcshTransnational crime - China-
dc.subject.lcshElectronic commerce - China-
dc.titleOpportunities for cross-border e-commerce in the context of the digital economy and the challenges of retail import smuggling and data crime-
dc.typePG_Thesis-
dc.description.thesisnameMaster of Social Sciences-
dc.description.thesislevelMaster-
dc.description.thesisdisciplineCriminology-
dc.description.naturepublished_or_final_version-
dc.date.hkucongregation2024-
dc.identifier.mmsid991044890310403414-

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