Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition on the Internet

Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition on the Internet

(Issued by Order No. 91 of the State Administration for Market Regulation on May 6, 2024 and shall come into force on September 1, 2024)

Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 For the purposes of preventing and deterring acts of unfair competition on the Internet, maintaining the market order of fair competition, encouraging innovation, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of operators and consumers, and promoting the standardized, sustainable and sound development of the digital economy, these Provisions are developed in accordance with the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the “Anti-Unfair Competition Law”), the E-commerce Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the “E-commerce Law”) and other laws and administrative regulations.
Article 2 Operators are encouraged and supported in carrying out business activities in accordance with the law and participating in market competition fairly. Business operators carrying out production and business activities through the Internet and other information networks (hereinafter referred to as “networks”) shall follow the principles of voluntariness, equality, fairness and good faith, comply with laws, regulations, and observe business ethics.
Business operators shall not conduct acts of unfair competition on the Internet, disrupt the order of market competition, affect fair market transactions, or harm the legitimate rights and interests of other business operators or consumers.
Article 3 The State Administration for Market Regulation is responsible for supervising and guiding the anti-unfair competition on the Internet across the country, and organizing the investigation into and handling of cases of unfair competition on the Internet with major impact across the country.
Local market regulation departments at or above the county level shall investigate into and handle acts of unfair competition on the Internet according to the law.
In the process of investigating into and handling illegal acts, the market regulation departments shall insist on law-based administration and ensure strict, standardized, fair and civilized law enforcement.
Article 4 The market regulation department shall, in conjunction with the member entities of the anti-unfair competition coordination mechanism, implement the major policies and measures for anti-unfair competition on the Internet, study the major problems of anti-unfair competition on the Internet, jointly investigate into and handle major cases, and jointly promote comprehensive governance.
The member entities of the anti-unfair competition coordination mechanism shall, in accordance with the division of duties, strengthen the management of the finance, media, telecommunications and other industries in accordance with the law, and take effective measures to prevent and deter acts of unfair competition in the Internet.
Article 5 The state encourages, supports and protects all organizations and individuals to conduct social supervision over acts of unfair competition on the Internet. For suspected acts of unfair competition on the Internet, any entity or individual has the right to submit a tip-off to the market regulation department according to the law, and the market regulation department shall handle it in a timely manner after receiving the tip-off.
Trade organizations shall strengthen industry self-regulation, and guide and standardize members' competition according to the law and regulations.
Article 6 Platform operators shall strengthen the standardized management of competition behaviors on the platform, and shall take necessary handling measures and keep relevant records in a timely manner, and report to the market regulation department at or above the county level where the platform operator is located according to the provisions, if they find that operators on the platform adopt unfair competition methods, illegally sell commodities and provide services, or infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. The records shall be kept for a period of not less than three years from the date where the disposal measures are taken.
Chapter II Acts of Unfair Competition on the Internet
Article 7 Operators shall not use the Internet to conduct the following acts of confusion, causing people to mistakenly think that they are other people's commodities (commodities referred to in these Provisions include services) or have specific connection with others:
(1) Unauthorized use of the same or similar logo of the main part of the domain name, the name of the website, the webpage, etc., on which others have a certain influence.
(2) Arbitrarily using the commodity name, enterprise name (including abbreviation, brand, etc.), social organization name (including abbreviation, etc.), name (including pen name, stage name, translated name, etc.) on which others have certain influence as the main part of the domain name and other network business activities.
(3) Unauthorized use of the same or similar logo of the page design, name, icon, shape, etc. of the application software, online store, Client, mini program, official account, game interface, etc., on which others have certain influence.
(4) Unauthorized use of network nicknames, network symbols, network abbreviations and other identifications on which others have certain influence.
(5) Production and sale of commodities that are sufficient to cause people to mistakenly think that they are commodities of others or have specific connection with others.
(6) By providing convenient conditions such as network business sites, jointly conducting acts of confusion with other business operators.
(7) Other acts of confusion conducted by using the network, which are sufficient to cause people to mistakenly think that they are commodities of others or have specific connection with others.
The act of setting a commercial logo on which others have certain influence as a search keyword without authorization, which is sufficient to cause people to mistakenly think that they are commodities of others or have specific connection with others, belongs to the act of confusion specified in the preceding paragraph.
Article 8 A business operator shall not conduct false or misleading commercial publicity of commodity producers and business entities as well as commodity performance, function, quality, source, previous honors, qualifications, etc. to deceive or mislead consumers or the relevant public by the following methods:
(1) Display, demonstration, explanation, interpretation, promotion or text annotation through websites, Clients, mini programs, official accounts, etc.
(2) Carrying out commercial marketing activities by live streaming, platform recommendation, online copywriting, and other means.
(3) Carrying out commercial marketing activities through top search, rave review, top transfer, list, etc.
(4) Other false or misleading commercial publicity.
Business operators shall not assist other business operators in conducting false or misleading commercial publicity acts mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
Article 9 A business operator shall not conduct the following acts, or conduct false or misleading commercial publicity of commodity producers and business entities, commodity sales status, transaction information, business operation data, user evaluation, etc., to deceive or mislead consumers or the relevant public:
(1) False transactions and false rankings.
(2) Fictitious transaction volume, turnover, reservation volume and other data and information related to business operation.
(3) Marketing by falsely claiming spot goods, making fictitious reservations, or false panic purchase.
(4) Fabricating user evaluation, or using misleading display and other means to hide bad reviews, placing positive reviews first and bad reviews later, and not significantly distinguishing reviews of different products.
(5) Enticing users to make designated praise, offer “likes,” conduct directional voting and other interactive acts by using cash rebates, red envelopes, card coupons and other methods.
(6) Fabricating traffic data such as the number of favorites, ......