The Senate approved, on the third and final reading, the proposed Internet Transactions Act, which was also certified urgent by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., with 20-1-0 votes from the lawmakers.

In a statement on Tuesday, Senator Mark Villar, sponsor of the proposed measure, thanked his colleagues for passing the measure during Monday's plenary session before the month-long congressional break of the chamber.

Senate Bill 1846, which is one of the 20 priority bills that the Marcos administration hoped to pass before the end of December this year, seeks to ensure that all goods and services transacted digitally will be as advertised.

The bill also ensures that electronic commerce transactions will be reliable, secure, and accessible to all consumers.

"Today, we achieved the approval of the ITA on its third reading, a great feat for ITA which has been pending in this chamber since the 18th Congress," said Villar, who chairs the Committee on Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship.

SB 1846 shall hold digital platforms or e-marketplaces liable, along with the online merchant or retailer, if they fail to perform their responsibilities as laid down in the bill and cause damage to the consumer.

The proposed measure sets penalties for e-marketplaces, e-retailers, online merchants, or digital platforms that sell illegal digital products, ranging from P50,000 to P100,000 for the first offense and P500,000 to P1.5 million for the third and subsequent offenses.

The bill pushes the establishment of a code of conduct for all companies involved in e-commerce in order to safeguard and advance consumer interests.

Villar noted that the bill will "pave the way for the creation" of an e-commerce bureau under the Department of Trade and Industry, which will oversee internet-based activities that presently lack regulation and is tasked to establish and manage an online business registry of all internet merchants.

The Internet Transactions Act is also seen to empower the DTI secretary by giving it authority to issue take-down orders that will render digital platforms inaccessible in the country if the goods, services, or digital products advertised are found to be "imminently injurious, unsafe, or dangerous to the public."