According to the official WeChat news of the State Administration for Market Regulation on March 3, in order to effectively maintain the order of the advertising market, protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and promote the sustainable and healthy development of the Internet advertising industry, the State Administration for Market Regulation recently revised and issued the Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"), which will come into force on May 24, 24.

The Measures adapt to the new characteristics, new trends and new requirements of the development of China's Internet advertising industry, revise and improve the original Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising, innovate regulatory rules, further refine the responsibilities of Internet advertising-related business entities, clarify behavioral norms, and strengthen regulatory measures, which is of great significance for maintaining the order of the Internet advertising market under the new situation and promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the digital economy.

The Measures further clarify the responsibilities of advertisers, internet advertising agents and publishers, and internet information service providers; Actively respond to social concerns, and regulate behaviors such as pop-up ads, open-screen advertisements, and the use of smart devices to publish advertisements that are concentrated by the people; It refines the advertising regulatory rules in key areas such as "soft text advertising", Internet advertising with links, auction ranking advertising, algorithmic recommendation advertising, using Internet live streaming to publish advertisements, and disguised advertisements subject to review; The new jurisdiction provisions for advertising spokespersons provide an important institutional guarantee for strengthening the supervision and enforcement of Internet advertising, and also give new momentum to the standardized and orderly development of the Internet advertising industry.

The State Administration for Market Regulation will strengthen business training for local market supervision departments, do a good job in providing administrative guidance to Internet platform enterprises and related advertising business entities, effectively improve the ability of Internet advertising supervision and industry development, enhance the awareness of all types of advertising business entities operating in accordance with laws and regulations, and promote the high-quality development of the Internet advertising industry with high-efficiency supervision.

The full text is as follows:

Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising

(Promulgated by Order No. 2023 of the State Administration for Market Regulation on February 2, 25, effective from May 72, 2023)

Article 1: These Measures are formulated on the basis of the "Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the Advertising 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, so as to regulate Internet advertising activities, protect the lawful rights and interests of consumers, promote the healthy development of the Internet advertising industry, and preserve the market economic order of fair competition.

Article 2: Within the territory of the People's Republic of China, the provisions of the Advertising Law and these Measures apply to commercial advertising activities that use websites, web pages, Internet applications, and other Internet media to directly or indirectly promote goods or services in text, pictures, audio, video, or other forms.

Information that laws, administrative regulations, departmental rules, mandatory national standards, and other relevant state provisions require shall be displayed, labeled, or informed, in accordance with those provisions.

Article 3: Internet advertisements shall be truthful and lawful, adhere to correct orientation, and express advertising content in healthy forms of expression, meeting the requirements of building socialist spiritual civilization and carrying forward China's excellent traditional culture.

The use of the Internet to engage in advertising activities shall comply with laws and regulations, be honest and creditworthy, and compete fairly.

The State encourages and supports the development of Internet public interest advertising and publicity activities, disseminating the core socialist values and excellent traditional Chinese culture, and advocating civilized customs.

Article 4: Natural persons, legal persons, or other organizations that use the Internet to publish advertisements for advertisers or advertising agents entrusted by advertisers apply to the Advertising Law and these Measures' provisions on advertisement publishers.

Natural persons, legal persons, or other organizations that use the Internet to provide information services shall apply the Advertising Law and the provisions of these Measures on Internet information service providers; Those engaged in activities such as the design, production, agency, or publication of Internet advertisements shall apply the provisions of the Advertising Law and these Measures on advertising agents, advertisement publishers, and other entities.

Article 5: Advertising industry organizations are to draft industry norms, self-discipline conventions, and group standards in accordance with laws, regulations, departmental rules, and charters, strengthen industry self-discipline, guide members to actively practice the core socialist values, lawfully engage in Internet advertising activities, promote the establishment of creditworthiness, and promote the healthy development of the industry.

Article 6: Products or services provided by laws and administrative regulations that prohibit the production or sale of products, as well as goods or services for which advertising is prohibited, must not be used by any unit or individual to design, produce, act as an agent, or publish advertisements on the Internet.

It is forbidden to use the Internet to publish tobacco (including electronic cigarettes) advertising.

It is prohibited to use the Internet to publish advertisements for prescription drugs, and where laws or administrative regulations provide otherwise, follow those provisions.

Article 7: Where advertisements for medical treatment, drugs, medical devices, pesticides, veterinary drugs, health foods, formula foods for special medical purposes, and other advertisements provided by laws and administrative regulations provide that they shall be reviewed, the advertising review organs shall review the content of the advertisements before publication; It may not be published without review.

Internet advertisements that require review shall be published in strict accordance with the content approved by the review, and must not be edited, spliced, or modified. Where the content of advertisements that have already been reviewed needs to be changed, a new application for advertising review shall be made.

Article 8: It is prohibited to covertly publish advertisements for medical treatment, medicines, medical devices, health foods, and formula foods for special medical purposes in the form of introducing health and health preservation knowledge.

Where health and wellness knowledge is introduced, the address, contact information, shopping links, etc. of the commodity operators or service providers related to medical treatment, drugs, medical devices, health foods, and formula foods for special medical purposes must not appear on the same page or at the same time.

Article 9: Internet advertisements shall be identifiable, enabling consumers to identify them as advertisements.

For auction-ranked goods or services, the advertiser shall clearly indicate "advertisement" to distinguish it from organic search results.

Except where laws and administrative regulations prohibit the publication or covert publication of advertisements, where goods or services are promoted through forms such as knowledge introduction, experience sharing, and consumption evaluation, and purchase methods such as shopping links are attached, the advertisement publisher shall conspicuously indicate "advertisement".

Article 10: Where internet advertisements are published in form such as pop-ups, advertisers and advertisement publishers shall conspicuously mark the closing sign to ensure one-click closure, and must not have the following circumstances:

(1) There is no closing sign or the time is over before the advertisement can be closed;

(2) Closing signs that are false, unlegible, or difficult to locate, etc., to create obstacles to the closure of advertisements;

(3) Closing an advertisement requires two or more clicks;

(4) In the process of browsing the same page or the same document, continue to pop up advertisements after closing, affecting users' normal use of the network;

(5) Other behaviors that affect one-click closing.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph apply to the app-opening ads displayed or released when launching an internet application.

Article 11: Users must not be deceived or misled into clicking or browsing advertisements in the following ways:

(1) False system or software updates, error reports, cleanups, notices, and other such prompts;

(2) False signs such as playing, starting, suspending, stopping, returning, etc.;

(3) False promises of rewards;

(4) Other methods to deceive or mislead users into clicking or browsing advertisements.

Article 12: Advertisements for medical treatment, medicines, health foods, formula foods for special medical purposes, medical devices, cosmetics, alcohol, and beauty must not be published on websites, web pages, internet applications, official accounts, and other Internet media aimed at minors, as well as online game advertisements that are not conducive to minors' physical and mental health.

Article 13: Advertisers shall be responsible for the authenticity of internet advertising content.

Where advertisers publish internet advertisements, entity qualifications, administrative licensing, cited content, and so forth shall comply with the requirements of laws and regulations, and relevant supporting documents shall be truthful, lawful, and valid.

Advertisers may publish advertisements on their own through self-built websites, as well as their own clients, Internet applications, official accounts, online store pages and other Internet media, or entrust advertising agents and advertisement publishers to publish advertisements.

Where advertisers publish internet advertisements on their own, the act of publishing advertisements shall comply with the requirements of laws and regulations, establish advertising archives, and promptly update them. The relevant archives shall be kept for no less than three years from the date of the end of the advertisement.

When advertisers entrust the publication of internet advertisements, they shall promptly notify the advertising agents and advertisement publishers providing services in writing or other methods that can be confirmed when revising the content of the advertisements.

Article 14: Advertising agents and advertisement publishers shall follow the following provisions to establish, complete, and implement systems for undertaking registration, review, and archives management of internet advertising business:

(1) Check and register information such as the true identity, address, and effective contact methods of advertisers, establish advertising archives and periodically check and update, and record and store electronic data related to advertising activities; The relevant archives shall be kept for not less than three years from the date of the end of the advertisement;

(2) Checking relevant supporting documents, checking the content of advertisements, advertising agents must not provide design, production, or agency services for advertisements whose content does not match or whose supporting documents are incomplete, and advertisement publishers must not publish advertisements;

(3) Allocate advertising review personnel familiar with advertising laws and regulations, or establish advertising review bodies.

"Identity information" as used in these Measures includes names (names), unified social credit codes (identification numbers), and so forth.

Advertising agents and advertisement publishers shall lawfully cooperate with the market regulatory departments in conducting investigations of the internet advertising industry, and promptly provide truthful, accurate, and complete materials.

Article 15: Where methods such as algorithm recommendations are used to publish internet advertisements, rules related to algorithm recommendation services, advertising records, and so forth shall be recorded in advertising archives.

Article 16: In the course of providing internet information services, internet platform operators shall employ measures to prevent and stop illegal advertisements, and comply with the following provisions:

(1) Record and store the real identity information of users who use their information services to publish advertisements, and the time for keeping information records is not less than three years from the end of the act of providing information services;

(2) Conduct monitoring and investigation of the content of advertisements published using their information services, and where illegal advertisements are discovered, necessary measures such as notifying corrections, deleting, blocking, or disconnecting the publication links shall be employed to stop them, and relevant records shall be retained;

  (三)建立有效的投诉、举报受理和处置机制,设置便捷的投诉举报入口或者公布投诉举报方式,及时受理和处理投诉举报;

(4) Technical means or other means must not be used to obstruct or obstruct the market regulatory departments' carrying out advertising monitoring;

(5) Cooperate with the market regulatory departments in investigating illegal conduct in internet advertising, and promptly employ technical means to preserve evidence materials for suspected illegal advertisements in accordance with the requirements of the market regulatory departments, truthfully providing the true identity information of relevant advertisement publishers, advertising modification records, and transaction information on related goods or services, and so forth;

(6) Employ measures such as warnings, suspending, or terminating services for users who use their information services to publish illegal advertisements in accordance with service agreements and platform rules.

Article 17: The use of the Internet to publish or send advertisements must not affect users' normal use of the Internet, and bidding ranking advertisements must not be inserted into the results of searches for government service websites, web pages, Internet applications, official accounts, and so forth.

Without the user's consent or request, or the user's explicit refusal, Internet advertisements must not be sent to their vehicles, navigation equipment, smart home appliances, etc., and advertisements or advertising links must not be attached to the e-mails or Internet instant messaging information sent by users.

Article 18: When publishing internet advertisements containing links, advertisers, advertising agents, and advertisement publishers shall check the content of advertisements related to front-end advertisements in the next level of links.

Article 19: Where commodity sellers or service providers promote goods or services through live streaming on the Internet, which constitutes commercial advertising, they shall bear the responsibilities and obligations of the advertiser in accordance with law.

Where live broadcast room operators are entrusted to provide advertising design, production, agency, or publishing services, they shall bear the responsibilities and obligations of advertising agents and advertisement publishers in accordance with law.

Where live streaming marketers are entrusted to provide advertising design, production, agency, or publishing services, they shall bear the responsibilities and obligations of advertising agents and advertisement publishers in accordance with law.

Where live streaming marketers recommend or certify goods or services in their own name or image, constituting advertising endorsements, they shall bear the responsibilities and obligations of the advertising spokesperson in accordance with law.

Article 20: The implementation of administrative punishments for illegal internet advertisements is under the jurisdiction of the market regulatory department for the location of the advertisement publisher. Where the market regulatory department for the location of the advertisement publisher has jurisdiction over advertisers, advertising agents, advertising spokespersons, and internet information service providers in different places, they may transfer the illegal situation to the local market regulatory department for handling. Where the advertising spokesperson is a natural person, the location of the institution providing brokerage services for the advertising spokesperson, the place of the advertising spokesperson's household registration or habitual residence is its location.

Where the market regulatory department for the location of the advertiser or the location of the advertising agent first discovers illegal clues or receives complaints or reports, it may also exercise jurisdiction.

Administrative punishments for advertisers' self-publishing of illegal advertisements are under the jurisdiction of the market regulatory department where the advertisers are located.

Article 21: When investigating and handling illegal internet advertisements, the market regulatory departments may lawfully exercise the following functions and powers:

(1) Carrying out on-site inspections of venues suspected of engaging in illegal advertising activities;

(2) Questioning parties suspected of violating the law or their legally-designated representatives, principal responsible persons, and other relevant personnel, and conducting investigations of relevant units or individuals;

(3) Requiring parties suspected of violating the law to provide relevant supporting documents within a time limit;

(4) Consulting and copying contracts, bills, account books, advertising works, and internet advertising-related data related to suspected illegal advertisements, including using methods such as screen capture, screen recording, web page retention, photographing, audio recording, and video recording to preserve Internet advertising content;

(5) Sealing or seizing advertising items, business tools, equipment, and other property directly related to suspected illegal advertising;

(6) Ordering the suspension of the publication of suspected illegal advertisements that may cause serious consequences;

(7) Other powers provided for by laws and administrative regulations.

When the market regulatory departments lawfully exercise the functions and powers provided for in the preceding paragraph, the parties shall assist and cooperate, and must not refuse, obstruct, or conceal the true situation.

Article 22: The market regulatory departments' technical monitoring records of internet advertisements may be used as evidence for carrying out administrative punishments or employing administrative measures against illegal advertisements.

Article 23: Where articles 6 and 12 of these Measures are violated, punishments are to be given in accordance with article 57 of the Advertising Law.

Article 24: Where article 7 of these Measures is violated by publishing internet advertisements without review or in accordance with the content approved by the advertisement review, punishment is to be given in accordance with article 58 of the Advertising Law.

Article 25: Where articles 8 and 9 of these Measures are violated by covertly publishing advertisements for medical treatment, medicines, medical devices, health foods, or formula foods for special medical purposes, or where the Internet advertisements are not identifiable, punishment is to be given in accordance with the third paragraph of article 59 of the Advertising Law.

Article 26: Where article 10 of these Measures is violated by publishing internet advertisements in pop-up or other forms, without conspicuously indicating the closing sign, ensuring one-click closure, punishment is to be given in accordance with the second paragraph of article 62 of the Advertising Law.

Where advertisement publishers carry out the conduct provided for in the preceding paragraph, the market regulatory department at the county level or above is to order corrections, and where corrections are refused, a fine of between 5,000 and 30,000 RMB is given.

Article 27: Where the provisions of article 11 of these Measures are violated by deceiving or misleading users to click or browse advertisements, where laws or administrative regulations provide for them, follow those provisions; Where laws or administrative regulations do not provide for it, the market regulatory department at the county level or above is to order corrections and impose a fine of between 5,000 and 30,000 RMB on advertisers, advertising agents, and advertisement publishers.

Article 28: Where the first paragraph of Article 14, Article 15, or Article 18 of these Measures is violated by advertising agents or advertisement publishers failing to establish and complete advertising business management systems in accordance with provisions, or failing to check the content of advertisements, punishment is to be given in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 60 of the Advertising Law.

Where the fourth paragraph of Article 13, Article 15, or Article 18 of these Measures is violated by advertisers failing to establish advertising archives in accordance with provisions, or failing to check the content of advertisements, the market regulatory department at the county level or above is to order corrections and may impose a fine of up to 50,000 RMB.

Where advertisers, advertising agents, or advertisement publishers can prove that they have performed relevant responsibilities, take measures to prevent the content of linked advertisements from being tampered with, and provide the real name, address, and effective contact information of the subject of the illegal advertising activity, they may be mitigated, mitigated, or not given administrative punishments in accordance with law.

Where the third paragraph of article 14 of these Measures is violated by advertising agents or advertisement publishers refusing to cooperate with the Internet advertising industry investigation conducted by the market regulatory departments, or providing false information, the market regulatory departments at the county level or above are to order corrections and may impose a fine of between 10,000 and 30,000 RMB.

Article 29: Where internet platform operators violate items 1, 3, and 5 of article 16 of these Measures, and laws or administrative regulations provide for them, follow those provisions; Where laws or administrative regulations do not provide for it, the market regulatory department at or above the county level shall order corrections and impose a fine of between 10,000 and 50,000 RMB.

Where internet platform operators violate item 2 of article 16 of these Measures by knowingly or should have known that internet advertising activities are illegal and fail to stop them, punishments are to be given in accordance with article 63 of the Advertising Law.

Article 30: Where the provisions of the first paragraph of article 17 of these Measures are violated and laws or administrative regulations have provisions, follow those provisions; Where laws or administrative regulations do not provide for it, the market regulatory department at the county level or above is to order corrections and impose a fine of between 5,000 and 30,000 RMB on advertisers, advertising agents, and advertisement publishers.

Where the second paragraph of article 17 of these Measures is violated by sending internet advertisements to their means of transportation, navigation equipment, smart home appliances, etc. without the user's consent, request, or user's explicit refusal, punishment is to be given in accordance with the first paragraph of article 62 of the Advertising Law; Where advertisements or links to advertisements are attached to e-mails or Internet instant messaging messages sent by users, the market regulatory department at or above the county level shall order corrections and impose a fine of between 5,000 and 30,000 RMB.

Article 31: Administrative punishment decisions made by the market regulatory departments in accordance with the Advertising Law and these Measures shall be announced to the public through the State Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System in accordance with law; Where the nature is egregious, the circumstances are serious, and the harm to society is relatively large, it is to be included in the list of the seriously untrustworthy in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Measures for the Management of the List of the Untrustworthy with Serious Violations of Market Supervision and Management."

Article 2023: These Measures shall take effect on May 5, 1. On July 2016, 7, the former State Administration for Industry and Commerce promulgated Order No. 4 of the "Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising" was abolished at the same time. (Zhongxin Finance)