Singapore releases enhanced e-commerce guidelines

The Technical Reference 76 on Guidelines for electronic commerce transactions (TR 76)¹ has been enhanced to safeguard consumer trust and foster competitive e-commerce market challenges in Singapore, providing e-commerce marketplaces (e-marketplaces)² and e-retailers³ with updated guidelines to enhance consumer trust and promote market competitiveness.

With more consumers turning to online shopping for their everyday needs, robust e-commerce consumer protection has become increasingly important. The way products are presented to consumers, such as headline descriptions and search rankings, significantly influence and shape consumer purchasing decisions. Emerging issues like fake reviews⁷ and misleading design features (such as subscription traps⁸) can undermine consumers’ ability to make informed choices and erode consumer trust in the e-commerce space.

The enhanced TR 76 addresses these concerns by providing guidance on displaying information (including discounts and promotions) in product listings accurately, and for consumers to be able to readily access the relevant terms and conditions of merchants. The enhancements also include guidance in relation to addressing fake reviews and misleading user interfaces.

According to Enterprise Singapore, merchants⁶ increasingly depend on e-marketplaces to reach consumers. The way in which e-marketplaces interact with merchants on their platforms can significantly impact the business of merchants and affect the ability of new and existing e-marketplaces to enter and compete fairly and effectively. For instance, e-marketplaces may restrict their merchants’ ability to sell their products on other competing platforms or impose onerous and unfair listing conditions for merchants.

E-marketplaces may also accord preferential treatment to their own product or service listings, or those of their affiliates, creating an uneven playing field that disadvantages other merchants on their platforms.

To keep Singapore’s e-commerce market open and competitive, the TR 76 has also been updated with guidance for e-marketplaces and e-retailers on engaging merchants fairly (such as fair listing conditions and allowing businesses to use multiple e-marketplaces), promoting transparency in their dealings with merchants and providing effective dispute resolution mechanisms.

The TR 76 also guides industry players on the appropriate use of automated tools and AI. In deploying such tools, e-marketplaces and e- retailers should ensure these systems operate transparently and fairly, and consider how to manage any risks appropriately (such as compliance with competition, data protection, cybersecurity and other related laws).

The anti-scam guidelines in the TR 76 have also been updated to recommend that e-marketplaces and e-retailers:

- Conduct due diligence on merchants and verify their identity against government records or with internal business tools, where applicable.

- Implement measures, including the suspension or termination of a merchant’s account and enhanced identity verification, to protect customers upon detection of fraudulent activity.

- Implement processes to identify suspicious content and account(s) and receive information from regulatory authorities for the purposes of identifying suspicious content and account(s).

- Respond to regulatory requests expeditiously, within 24 hours or the stipulated deadline (where provided). Note that this does not apply to stipulated deadlines in legal orders, for which platforms are legally required to respond or comply within the legally stipulated deadline.

- Facilitate investigations, remediation and tracing of suspicious transactions by developing mechanisms to keep records of relevant account and transaction information.

Choy Sauw Kook, Director-General (Quality and Excellence) at Enterprise Singapore said: “As Singapore’s e-commerce ecosystem and digital economy continue to mature, it is crucial that we continue to build trust among consumers and maintain a transparent, competitive playing field for businesses. That is why we conduct regular reviews, in consultation with industry stakeholders, to ensure that our standards remain relevant and can support businesses’ needs in emerging areas.

"With the enhanced TR 76, e-commerce players can more effectively build consumer trust, compete fairly on e-marketplaces, and navigate the use of new technologies.”

Chief Executive of Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) Alvin Koh, said: “The enhanced TR 76 represents a major step forward as it now covers more comprehensively the different aspects of a consumer’s purchasing journey, starting from pre- to post- purchase. We also now provide guidance to businesses operating in the online space so that they contribute to a fair and open environment.

"CCS encourages online businesses to incorporate these updated guidelines, which will help build greater trust and efficiency in our e-commerce ecosystem for the benefit of both consumers and businesses.”

Director, Policy Development and Security, Ministry of Home Affairs, Loh Yuh Yiing said: “E-commerce scams have more than halved, from about 7,200 cases in the first half of 2024, to about 3,200 cases in the first half of 2025. This significant improvement is in part due to the collective effort and close collaboration between the government and industry. We urge the e-commerce industry to implement the enhanced TR 76 guidelines to make online marketplaces safer for their users.”

The enhancements were developed by a working group appointed by Enterprise Singapore, through the Singapore Standards Council. The group⁴ includes representatives from online marketplaces (including Shopee, Lazada and FairPrice), the Consumers Association of Singapore, the Singapore Retailers Association, CCS and the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs. 

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1 First published in 2020, the TR 76 equips e-commerce businesses with industry best practices on key activities relating to online transactions. The TR 76 was revised in 2022 to include additional anti-scam guidelines for e-retailers and e-commerce marketplaces, to offer better protection for consumers transacting online. 

2 E-marketplaces refer to online intermediaries or platforms that allow participating merchants to exchange information about products or services with customers to enter into an electronic commerce transaction, which may or may not provide information or services about payments and logistics. 

3 “E-retailers” refer to individuals or organisations selling products or services directly to customers through their own online platform such as website or mobile application.

4 Working group members include: Amazon Asia-Pacific Holdings, ByteDance, Carousell, Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore, Consumers Association of Singapore, Facebook Singapore, FairPrice Group Holdings, Institute of Technical Education, Lazada Singapore, Lee & Lee, MasterCard Asia/Pacific, Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore; Personal Data Protection Commission, RSM SG Technology Consulting, Shopee Singapore, Singapore Institute of Retail Studies, Singapore Retailers Association, and TUV SUD PSB. 

6 “Merchants” refer to individuals or organisations that sell products or services to customers through an e-marketplace or e-retailer.

7 Fake reviews refer to fabricated or manipulated reviews that do not reflect the genuine opinion or experience of consumers. 

8 Subscription traps refer to design features that mislead a consumer into signing up for a subscription by using a pre-ticked checkbox or situations when businesses make it easy to start a subscription, but unnecessarily difficult or confusing for consumers to cancel thereafter.