Regulatory Safeguards for Consumers Who Purchase from Consumer-to-Consumer E-Commerce Platforms

Question:

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye: To ask the Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs what are the regulatory safeguards for consumers who choose to purchase from e-commerce platforms that facilitate consumer-to-consumer (C2C) transactions, given that a number of such platforms have consistent poor rankings in the E-commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs:

1. Carousell and Facebook Marketplace have consistently received poor ratings since the Transaction Safety Ratings (TSR) was introduced in 2022.

2. Both platforms are designated under the E-Commerce Code of the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA), which legally requires them to comply with prescribed measures to better protect their users against scams. For example, both platforms implemented enhanced user verification measures in 2024. Thereafter, e-commerce scams on Carousell decreased by 11% between June and December 2024, while those on Facebook Marketplace decreased by 55% between May and November 2024. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) continues to work Meta and Carousell on additional anti-scam safeguards, and will use legal levers where necessary.

3. While regulatory measures can reduce the risk of scams to some extent, consumers are urged to always exercise care and vigilance when transacting on e-commerce platforms, particularly those with poor TSR ratings.