Reconstructing the Legal Responsibility of E-Commerce Platforms for Jahalah in Unlabelled Food Products: A Review of Consumer Protection Law and Islamic Economic Law

Abstract

This article examines the legal responsibility of e-commerce platforms for transactions involving processed food products that lack legally required label information. Shopee is used as an object of contractual analysis, not as empirical evidence of the prevalence of unlabelled listings. The study is normative legal research employing statutory and conceptual approaches. It maps the Consumer Protection Law, the Food Law, Government Regulation Number 80 of 2019 on Trading Through Electronic Systems, BPOM rules on processed-food labelling as amended, the Halal Product Assurance regime, DSN-MUI Fatwa Number 110/DSN-MUI/IX/2017, and Shopee’s Terms of Service accessed on 19 September 2026. The study finds that primary labelling and information duties attach to businesses that produce or trade food, while platform responsibility must be assessed proportionately according to intermediary functions, system governance, notice-and-action mechanisms, and the limits of contractual disclaimers that cannot displace mandatory statutory duties. From the perspective of Islamic economic law, uncertainty concerning material product characteristics may amount to significant jahalah where it affects safety, halal status, product identity, or other elements material to informed consent in the contract. The article distinguishes obligations already supportable under positive law—such as information transparency, complaint handling, and action against unlawful content—from de lege ferenda reforms, including risk-based verification for selected food categories and a more structured notice-and-action mechanism. The study does not empirically measure seller compliance, consumer behaviour, listing prevalence, or platform response effectiveness.