Introduction:
The Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China, revised in 2021, marks a significant milestone in the evolution of advertising regulation within the country. This updated law introduces comprehensive guidelines and standards to ensure the truthfulness, fairness, and legality of advertising practices, reflecting China’s commitment to protecting consumer rights and promoting healthy market competition.
The 2021 revision builds upon the foundational principles set forth in previous versions, incorporating new provisions that address emerging challenges in the digital advertising landscape. It emphasizes the importance of honesty and credibility in advertising, prohibiting false or misleading information that could deceive or mislead consumers. The law explicitly bans the use of superlative language, false endorsements, and unsubstantiated claims in advertisements, aiming to foster a more transparent and trustworthy advertising environment.
Table of Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Rules for the Contents of Advertising
Chapter III Code of Conduct of Advertising
Chapter IV Supervision and Administration
Chapter V Legal Liability
Chapter VI Supplemental Provisions
Chapter I: General Provisions
Article 1: This Law is formulated so as to regulate advertising activities, protect the lawful rights and interests of consumers, promote the healthy development of advertising business, and maintain the socioeconomic order.
Article 2: This law applies within the territory of the People’s Republic of China to commercial advertisement activities for which goods dealers or service providers use certain media formats to directly or indirectly introduce the goods or services they sell.
“Advertisers” as used in this Law indicates natural persons, legal persons or other organizations that, for the purpose of promoting the sale of merchandise or services, design, produce and publish advertisements either by themselves or by retaining others to do so.
“Advertising agents” as used in this Law indicates natural persons, legal person or other organizations that are retained to provide advertisement design and production and representation services.
“Advertisement publishers” as used in this Law indicates the natural persons, legal persons or other organizations that publish advertisements for advertisers or the advertising agents that advertisers retain.
“Advertisement spokesperson” as used in this Law indicates natural persons, legal persons or other organizations, other than the advertiser, who make recommendations or testimonials using their own name or image regarding the goods or services in an advertisement
Article 3: Advertisements shall be truthful and lawful, shall present the advertising content in a healthy manner, and shall be consistent with the requirements of the construction of a civilization in the socialist spirit and carrying forward the exceptional traditional culture of the Chinese people.
Article 4: Advertisements must not contain false or misleading content, and must not trick or mislead consumers.
Advertisers shall be responsible for the truthfulness of the content of advertisements.
Article 5: Advertisers, advertising agents, and advertisement publishers, when engaging in advertising activities, shall abide by laws and regulations, be honest and credible, and compete fairly.
Article 6: The State Council department for market regulation is in charge of national efforts to oversee and manage advertising, and the relevant State Council departments are responsible for efforts related to managing advertising within the scope of their respective duties.
Departments for market regulation at the county level and above are responsible for efforts on the oversight and management of advertising within the corresponding administrative region, and the relevant departments of people’s governments at the county level and above are responsible for efforts related to the management of advertising within the scope of their respective duties.
Article 7: Advertising industry organizations follow the laws, regulations and provisions of their charter to formulate industry regulations, strengthen industry self-discipline, promote the development of the industry, guide members to lawfully engage in advertising activities, and promote the establishment of an honest advertising industry.
Chapter II: Content Norms for Advertising
Article 8: Statements in an advertisement on the performance, function, place of origin, usage, quality, composition, price, producer or manufacturer, term of validity, promise or other attributes of goods; or on the content, provider, form, quality, price, promise or other attributes of a service; shall be accurate, clear and explicit.
Expressions in an advertisement about giving promotional items with the sale of commodities or provision of services, shall clearly indicate the type, specification, quantities of goods or services to be given and the means and their effective period.
Content that laws or administrative regulations provide shall be clearly displayed in advertisements shall be conspicuously and distinctly shown.
Article 9: Advertisements must not have the following circumstances:
(1) Using or covertly using the national flag, anthem, emblem, military flag, military songs or military insignia of the People’s Republic of China,
(2) Using or covertly using the names or images of state organs or their personnel;
(3) Using language such as “national level”, “highest level” or “optimal”;
(4) Harming the national dignity or interests, or leaking state secrets;
(5) Hindering social stability or harming the public interest;
(6) endangering the safety of persons or property, or revealing personal privacy;
(7) Hindering societal public order or violating good social conduct;
(8) Having pornographic, sexual, superstitious, terrorist or violent content;
(9) Having content which is ethnically, racially, religiously or sex-based discrimination;
(10) Hindering the protection of the environment, natural resources or cultural heritage;
(11) Other situations prohibited by law or administrative regulations.
Article 10: Advertisements must not impair the physical and mental health of minors or disabled persons.
Article 11: Where an advertisement involves matters for which an administrative licence must be obtained, it shall comply with the content of the license.
Where advertisements use cited content such as data, statistical information, investigative conclusions, abstracts or quotations, it shall be truthful and accurate, and clearly indicate the sources. Where there is a application range or validity period [or expiration date] for cited content, it shall be clearly indicated.
Article 12: Where an advertisement involves a patented product or process, it shall clearly indicate the patent number and type of patent.
Where patent rights have not been obtained, an advertiser shall not give false information in an advertisement that the patent right has been obtained.
It is prohibited in an advertisement to use a patent application for which patent rights have not been granted or to use a terminated, revoked or ineffective patent.
Article 13: Advertisements shall not belittle other manufacturers or operations’ merchandise or services.
Article 14: An advertisement shall be distinguishable and shall enable consumers to identify it as an advertisement.
The mass media must not covertly publish advertisements in the form of news reports. Advertisements published through the mass media shall be conspicuously labeled “advertisement” so as to differentiate them from other non-advertisement information, and must not mislead consumers.
Radio and television stations’ publication of advertisements shall follow relevant national departments provisions on length and method, and shall make clear indications of the advertisements length.
Article 15: Special pharmaceuticals such as narcotics, psychotropic substances, therapeutic toxins and radioactive drugs, chemical precursors for drugs, as well as medicines, medical instruments and therapies used in treatment of drug withdrawal, must not be advertised.
Advertisements for prescription drugs other than those in the preceding paragraph, may only be featured in medical and pharmaceutical journals jointly designated by the administrative department of health under the State Council and the State Council Drug Administration Department.
Article 16: Advertisements for medical treatments, medicines, or medical instruments must not contain the following:
(1) assertions or guarantees of efficacy or safety;
(2) Statements of recovery rates or efficacy rates;
(3) Comparisons to the efficacy or safety of other medicines or medical instruments;
(4) Use of advertising spokespersons for recommendations or testimonials;
(5) Other content prohibited by laws or administrative regulations.
The content of advertisements for medicines must not be inconsistent with instruction books approved by the State Council department for drug oversight and management, and shall conspicuously indicate precautions and negative reactions. Advertisements for prescription drugs shall be conspicuoulsy labeled with “this advertisement is provided solely to be read by medical and pharmaceutical professionals” ; advertisements for non-prescription drugs shall be conspicuously labeled with “purchase and use this product in accordance with the instructions or as directed by a pharmacist,”.
Advertisements recommending personal use of medical treatment appliances shall conspicuously state “please carefully read the instruction booklet or purchase and use as directed by medical personnel.” Where there are contraindications or precautions in a medical instrument’s registration documents, advertisements’ texts shall conspicuously indicate ” Carefully read the instructions for contraindications and precautions”
Article 17: Other than advertisements for medical treatment, medicines and medical instruments, it is prohibited for other advertisements to touch upon functions for treatment of illnesses, and the language of medical treatment, or language that would easily confuse the promoted product with medicines or medical instruments, must not be used.
Article 18: Advertisements for health foods must not contain the following:
(1) assertions or guarantees of efficacy or safety;
(2) content related to disease prevention or therapeutic functions;
(3) Assertions or implications that the product advertised is necessary for remaining healthy.
(4) Comparisons with medicines or other health foods;
(5) Use of advertising spokespersons’ recommendations or testimonials;
(6) Other content prohibited by laws or administrative regulations.
Health food advertisements shall conspicuously indicate “This product is not a substitute for medicine.”
Article 19: Radio and television stations, magazine and A/V publishers, and internet information service providers must not use methods such as introducing health and fitness knowledge to covertly publish advertisements for medical treatment, medicines, medical instruments or health foods.
Article 20: It is prohibited to publish advertisements on mass media or in public venues for infant dairy products, drinks or other foods that are asserted to replace mother’s milk in whole or in part.
Article 21: Advertisements for pesticides, veterinary drugs, animal feed and feed additives must not contain the following content:
(1) assertions or guarantees of efficacy or safety;
(2) use of the name or image of a research and development unit, academic organization, technical institute, trade association or of an expert, a doctor or patient or consumer for promotion or demonstrations;
(3) explanations of efficacy;
(4) language, text or pictures contrary to safe usage rules;must not contain any language, text or pictures contrary to safe usage rules;
(5) Other content prohibited by laws or administrative regulations.
Article 22: It is prohibited to place tobacco advertisements on mass media, or in public venues, on public transportation, or out of doors. It is prohibited to send any form of tobacco advertisement to minors.
It is prohibited to use advertisements for other products, or public interest advertisements, to publicize content such as the name, trademark, packaging, or slogans of tobacco products.
Producers or sellers of tobacco products must not have content such as the name, trademark, packaging, or slogans of tobacco products in announcements such as for change of address, change of name, or employment opportunities.
Article 23: Advertisements for alcohol must not contain the following:
(1 ) inducements or temptations to drink alcohol, or promote immoderate drinking.
(2) showing the action of drinking alcohol
(3) exhibiting actions such as operating a car, boat or airplane;
(4) Indicating or implying that drinking alcohol has functions such as relieving nervousness, easing anxiety or increasing physical strength.
Article 24: Advertisements for education and training must not contain the following:
(1) guarantee type promises about educational advancement, passing tests, receiving degrees or certificates, or make clear statements or implications regarding the effectiveness of education or training;
(2) Clear statements or implications that testing organizations or their employees, or question selectors, participate in the education or training;
(3) use of the name or image of a research unit, academic organization, educational institute, trade association, expert, or beneficiary for promotion or demonstrations;
Article 25: Advertisements for goods or services that have expectations of a return on investment , such as those seeking investors, shall have reasonable indication or warnings on possible risks and how responsibility for risks will be borne; and must not contain the following content:
(1) Assurances and promises about future results, earnings, or related circumstances; expressions or implications that it will break even, have no risks, maintain earnings and so forth, except as provided elsewhere by the State.
(2) Use of the name or image of a research and development institution , academic organization, or trade association; or of an expert or beneficiary or consumer, for promotion or demonstrations.
Article 26: In real estate advertisements, housing information shall be truthful, and the area shall be clearly identified as the area of the building or the interior area, and the following content must not be included:
(1)Promises on appreciation or returns on investment;
(2) Expressions of the location in terms of time necessary to reach a specific landmark;
(3) Violations of State provisions on price regulations;
(4) Misleading publicity on planned or under construction, transportation, commercial or cultural and educational facilities or other municipal government capacities.
Article 27: The assertions in advertisments for crop seeds, tree seeds, grass seeds, breeding livestock and poultry, aquatic shoots and cultures, regarding aspects such as the species name, production performance, growth or yield, character, resistance, special application value, economic value, scope and requirements for suitable planting or breeding, shall be true, clear and understandable, and must not contain any of the following content:
(1) making assertions that cannot be scientifically verified;
(2) assertions or assurances expressing efficacy;
(3) carrying out economic analysis and predictions or making guarantees and promises;
(4) using the name or image of a research and development unit, academic organization, technical extension institute, trade association or of an expert or user for promotion or demonstrations;
Article 28: Where advertisements use content that is false or disingenuous to trick or mislead, it constitutes a false advertisement.
Where advertisements have any of the following, they are false advertisements:
(1) the goods or services do not exist;
(2) marketing, promises and other information related to products or services that is inconsistent with the actual conditions regarding a goods’ performance, function, origin, uses, quality, specifications, components, price, manufacturer, and effective period, sales status and information on awards and honors received; or of a service’s content, supplier, form, quality, price, sales status, and information on awards and honors received; having a material impact on purchasing.
(3) use of false, fabricated or unverifiable scientific research, statistics, survey results, abstracts, quotations or other such data.
(4) false effects of using the goods or receiving services.
(5) Other situations of false content or misleading content that tricks or misleads consumers.
Chapter III: Regulation of Advertising Conduct
Article 29: Where radio broadcasters, television stations, newspapers and periodical publishers engage in the publication of advertisements, they shall establish specialized organizations for engaging in the advertising business, appoint necessary personnel, and possess appropriate venues and equipment for publishing advertisements.
Article 30: Advertisers, advertising agents, and advertising publishers shall make a written contract between them in accordance with law.
Article 31: Advertisers, advertising agents, and advertising publishers must not engage in any form of unfair competition in advertising activities.
Article 32: An advertiser commissioning the design, production and publishing of advertisements shall retain advertising agents or advertisement publishers with lawful operating credentials.
Article 33: Where advertisers or Advertising agents using others’ names or images in advertisements, they shall first obtain their written consent; where using the name or image of a person with limited or no civil capacity, they shall first obtain the written consent of the guardian.
Article 34: Advertising agents and advertisement publishers shall follow relevant state provisions in establishing and completing systems for advertising business registration, review, and archive management.
Advertising agents and publishers examine the relevant supporting documents and verify the advertisement content on the basis of laws and administrative regulations. Advertising agents must not provide design, fabrication, or representation services for advertisements with non-compliant content or incomplete supporting documentation i operator shall not offer designing, making, agency services, advertisement publishers shall not be published; advertisement publishers must not public them.
Article 35: Advertising agents and publishers shall announce their fee standards and methods of accepting fees.
Article 36: Materials provided by advertisement publishers to advertisers and Advertising agents such as coverage rates, viewing rates, click rates and circulation shall be truthful.
Article 37: Units or individuals must not design, produce, represent or publish advertisements, advertisements for goods or services the production or sale of which is prohibited by laws or administrative regulations, as well as goods or services for which advertising is prohibited.
Article 38: Advertising spokespersons’ recommendations and testimonials in advertisements for goods or services shall be based on facts and meet the requirements of provisions of this law and other relevant laws and administrative regulations, and must not make recommendations or testimonials on products they have not used or services they have not received.
Minors who are not yet 18 years old must not be used as advertising spokespersons.
Natural persons, legal persons or other organizations who made recommendations or demonstrations in false advertising and received administrative punishments within the last 3 years, must not be used as advertising spokespersons.
Article 39: Advertising activities must not be launched in in primary and secondary schools or kindergartens; and teaching materials or supplementary educational materials for primary and secondary school or kindergarten students, workbooks, stationery, teaching aids, school uniforms, school buses and so forth, must not be used to publish or covertly publish advertisements, except for public interest advertisements.
Article 40: Advertisements for medical treatment, medicine, health foods, medical apparatuses, cosmetics, alcohol, and the beauty industry must not be placed in mass media aimed at minors, as well as advertisements for online games detrimental to the physical and mental health of minors.
Advertisements for goods or services aimed at minors under the age of 14 must not include the following content:
(1) tempting them to request parents buy the advertised goods or products;
(2) might cause them to imitate unsafe behavior.
Article 41: Local people’s governments at the county level or above shall organize relevant departments to strengthen oversight and management of outdoor advertisements such as for use of outdoor venues, spaces or facilities; and draft plans and safety requirements for the set up of outdoor advertisments.
Outdoor advertising administration measures are set by local regulations and local rules.
Article 42: In any of the following situations, an outdoor advertisement must not be set up:
(1) it exploits traffic safety facilities or traffic signage;
(2) impacting the use of municipal public facilities, traffic safety facilities, traffic signals, fire department facilities, fire safety signals;
(3) It Obstructs production or the people’s livelihoods, damaging the appearance or atmosphere of the city;
(4) it is within the controlled constuction area of a state organ or cultural preservation unit or historical or scenic location
Article 43: Units and individuals must not send advertisements to parties’ residences or communication devices without their consent or request, and also must not send them advertisements in electronic form.
Where advertisements are sent in electronic form, they shall clearly express the true identity of the sender and contact information, and provide the recipient a method by which to refuse to continued receipt.
Article 44: Each provision of this law applies to the use of the Internet to engage in advertising activities.
Use of the internet to publish or send advertisements must not influence users’ regular use of the networks. Pop-up or other forms of advertisement on web pages shall have conspicuously labeled ‘close’ symbols, ensuring that one click will close them.
Article 45: Where managers of public venues or telecommunications operators and internet information service providers clearly know or should know of uses of their venues or information transmission and publication platforms to send or publish unlawful advertisements, they shall stop it.
Chapter IV: Oversight and Management
Article 46: Publication of advertisements for medical treatment, medicines, medical apartuses, pesticides, veterinary medicines and health food, as well as other advertisements that laws or administrative regulations provide shall be reviewed, shall before publication have the relevant departments (hereinafter advertisement review organs) conduct a review of the advertisement’s content; and they must not be published without review.
Article 47: Advertisers applying for review of advertisements shall submit the relevant supporting documents to the advertisement review organs in accordance with laws and administrative regulations.
The advertising regulatory authority shall make review decisions in accordance with the laws and administrative regulations, and shall copy the approved review documents to the corresponding local market supervision and administration department. Advertisement review organs shall promptly announce approvals of advertisements to the public.
Article 48: Units or individuals must not counterfeit, alter or transfer the an advertisement’s documents of approval.
Article 49: The advertising regulatory authority shall make review decisions in accordance with the laws and administrative regulations, and shall copy the approved review documents to the corresponding local market supervision and administration department. In fulfilling its responsibilities for advertising supervision and management, it may exercise the following powers:
(1) Conducting on-site inspections of venues suspected of engaging in illegal advertising.
(2) Questioning parties suspected of illegality, their legally-designated representatives or principle responsible person, and their relevant personnel; conducting investigations of relevant units or individuals.
(3) Requesting that parties suspected of illegality provide relevant supporting documents by a set time;
(4) Read and reproduce contracts, receipts, accounting books, advertisements and other materials related to the suspected illegal advertising.
(5) Sealing or seizing advertisments, business tools, equipment and other property directly related to suspected illegal advertising;
(6) Ordering suspension of publication for suspected illegal advertising that might cause serious consequences;
(7) Other powers provided by law or administrative regulations.
Market regulation departments shall establish and complete an advertisement monitoring system, improve monitoring measures, and promptly detect, investigate, and address illegal advertising conduct.
Article 50: Regulations on the mass media publication of advertisements will be formulated by the State Council department for market regulation together with the relevant departments of the State Council.
Article 51: Departments of market regulation are to follow the provisions of this law to exercise their powers, parties shall assist and cooperate, and must not refuse or impede.
Article 52: Departments of market regulation, relevant departments and their staffs have an obligation to preserve the confidentiality of commercial secrets they learn of during advertisement oversight and management activities.
Article 53: All units and individuals have the right to make complaints or reports of conduct violating this law to the departments of market regulation and relevant departments. The departments of market regulation and relevant departments shall public a telephone number, post box or email address for making complaints or reports; and departments receiving complaints or reports that department shall handle the complaint and inform the complainant or whistleblower within seven working days of receiving it.
Where departments for market regulation and relevant departments do not perform their duties in accordance with law, any units or individual have the right to make a report to the organ at the level above or the supervisory organ. Relevant departments shall protect the confidentiality of complainants or whistleblowers.
Relevant departments will protect the confidentiality of complainants or whistleblowers.
Article 54: Consumer associations and other consumer organizations lawfully conduct social supervision of conduct that violates this law, publication of false advertisements harming the lawful rights and interests of consumers, as well as other conduct harmful to the public interest.
Chapter V: Legal Responsibility
Article 55: Where advertising agents or advertisement publishers clearly know or should know that an advertisement is false, but still design, create, represent, or publish it; the department for market regulation is to confiscate the advertisement costs, and gives a fine of between 3 and five times the advertising costs; where there is no way to calculate the advertising costs, or they are obviously low, a fine of between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 yuan is given, and the relevant departments may temporarily suspend advertisement publication operations, cancel the operating license, and cancel the advertisement publication registration certificates.
Where medical establishments exhibit the illegal conduct in the preceding paragraph and the circumstances are serious, in addition to the departments for market regulation giving punishments in accordance with this law, the administrative departments of health may cancel their license to practice medical diagnosis and treatment or cancel their medical establishment operating permit.
Where advertising agents or advertisement publishers clearly know or should know that an advertisement is false, but still design, create, represent, or publish it; the department for market regulation is to confiscate the advertisement costs, and gives a fine of between three and five times the advertising costs; where there is no way to calculate the advertising costs, or they are obviously low, a fine of between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 yuan is given, and the relevant departments may temporarily suspend advertisement publication operations, cancel the operating license, and cancel the advertisement publication registration certificates.
Where advertisers, Advertising agents or advertisement publishers have conduct listed in the first or third paragraphs of this article that constitutes a crime, pursue criminal responsibility in accordance with law.
Article 56: Where, in violation of the provisions of this law, false advertisements have been published to cheat and mislead consumers, thus infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of consumers who have bought the merchandise or accepted the service, the advertiser shall bear civil liability in accordance with law; Where advertising agents and advertising publishers cannot provide the real name, address and effective contact method for an advertiser, consumers may request that the advertising agent or publisher make compensation.
Where advertising agents or publishers design produce, or publish false advertisements for goods or services upon with the lives or health of consumers are dependent, and harm defendants, they shall be jointly liable with the proprietors providing the goods or services.
Where advertising agents or publishers design produce, or publish false advertisements for goods or services upon with the lives or health of consumers are dependent, and harm defendants, they shall be jointly liable with the proprietors providing the goods or services.
Article 57: Where there is any of the following conduct, the department for market regulation will order the suspension of publishing the advertisements, fine the advertisers between 200,000 and 1,000,000 yuan, and where the circumstances are serious, may also cancel their business license, have the advertisement review organs revoke advertisement review approval documents, and not accept requests for review of their advertisement for 1 year; the department of market regulation is to confiscate the advertising costs of advertising agents and advertisement publishers, and give fines of between 200,000 and 1,000,000 yuan, and where the circumstances are serious, may also cancel their business license and revoke their advertisement publishing registration certificates:
(1) publication of advertisements with circumstances prohibited by articles 9 or 10 of this Law;
(2) Violating article 15 of this law by publishing advertisements for prescription drugs, advertisements for pharmaceuticals easily used to product drugs, or advertisements for medical apparatuses and treatment methods for quitting drugs.
(3) Violating article 20 of this law by publishing advertisements for infant dairy products, drinks or other foods claiming to fully or wholly replace mother’s milk;
(4) Publishing advertisements for tobacco violating article 22 of this Law ;
(5) violating article 37 of this law by using advertising to sell good which the manufacture and sale of is prohibited or services the provision of which is prohibited, or goods or services the advertising of which is prohibited;
(6) violating article 40 of this law by placing advertisements on mass broadcast media aimed at minors, for medical treatment, medicine, health foods, medical apparatuses, make up, alcohol or cosmetics as well as for online games detrimental to the physical and mental health of minors.
Article 58: Where there is any of the following conduct, the department for market regulation is to order that the publication of the advertisements be stopped and order the advertisers to eliminate the impact within the corresponding range, and gives a fine of between 1 and 3 times the adverising costs; where there is no way to calculate the advertising costs, or they are obviously low, a fine of between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan is given, where the circumstances are serious a fine of between 3 to 5 times the advertising costs is given, where there is no way to calculate the advertising costs, or they are obviously low, a fine of between 200,000 and 1,000,000 yuan is given, and the operating license may be cancelled; and the advertisement review organs will revoke advertisement approval documents and not accept their applications for review of advertisements for 1 year:
(1) Publishing advertisements for medical treatments, medicines, or medical apparatuses in violation of article 25 of this law;
(2) Violating article 17 of this Law by touching on disease treatment effects in advertisements, as well as use of medical terminology or language that would cause the goods to be confused with medicines or medical apparatuses.
(3) Publication of health food advertisements in violation of article 18 of this law;
(4) Publication of advertisements for veterinary drugs, animal feed and feed additives in violation of article 21 of this law;;
(5) Publication of alcohol advertisements in violation of article 23 of this Law;
(6) Publication of advertisements for education or training, in violation of article 24 of this law;
(7) Publication of commercial and other advertisements for goods or services where investors have an expected return on investment in violation of article 35 of this law;
(8) publishing real estate ads in violation of article 26 of this law;
(9) Publication of advertisements for crop seeds, forestry seeds, grass seeds, breeding livestock, or aquatic shoots and cultures, in violation of article 27 of this Law.
(10) Use of minors who are not yet 18 years old as advertising spokespersons, in violation of paragraph 2 of article 38 of this law;
(11) Use of natural persons, legal persons or other organizations as advertising spokespersons in violation of paragraph 3 of article 38 of this law;
(12) Publication of advertisements in primary and secondary schools or kindergartens, or in using items related to primary schools and kindergartens, in violation of article 39 of this Law;
(13) Publication of advertisements for goods or services targeting minors not yet 14 years old in violation of article 40, paragraph 2 of this law.
(14) Publication of advertisements that have not gone through inspection, in violation of article 46 of this law.
Where medical establishments exhibit the illegal conduct in the preceding paragraph and the circumstances are serious, in addition to the departments for market regulation giving punishments in accordance with this law, the administrative departments of health may cancel their license to practice medical diagnosis and treatment or cancel their medical establishment operating permit.
Where Advertising agents or advertisement publishers clearly know, or should know, that there is conduct provided for in paragraph 1 of this article, but still design, create, represent, or publish advertisements, the department for market regulation is to confiscate the advertising fees and give a fine of between 1 and 3 times the advertising fees, where there is no way to calculate the advertising costs or they are obviously low, give a fine of between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan; where circumstances are serious, give a fine of between 3 to 5 times the advertising fees, and where there is no way to calculate the advertising costs or they are obviously low, give a fine of between 200,000 and 1,000,000 yuan, cancel the operations license and cancel the advertising publication registration certificates.
Article 59: Where there is any of the following conduct, the departments for market regulation are to order a suspension of the advertisement’s publication, and fine the advertiser up to 100,000 yuan:
(1) Where the advertisement content violates article 8 of this law;
(2) Where the advertisement’s cited content violates article 11 of this law;
(3) Where advertisements touching upon patents violate article 12 of this law;
(4) Where, in violation of article 13 of this Law, advertising belittles the goods or services of other producers or operators.
Where advertising agents and publishers design, produce, represent, or publish advertisements that they clearly know, or should know, have unlawful conduct as provided for in the preceding paragraph, the department market regulation is to give a fine of up to 100,000 yuan.
Where advertisements violate article 14 of this law, and cannot be identified [as advertisements], or where in violation of article 19 of this law, medical treatment, medicines, medical instruments or health foods are covertly advertised, the department for market regulation is to order corrections and fine the advertisement publishers up to 100,000 yuan.
Article 60: Where, in violation of article 34 of this law, advertising agents or advertisement publishers fail to follow relevant national provisions to set up or complete advertising operations management systems, or where they fail to conduct a verification of advertising content, the department for market regulation is to order corrections and may give a fine of up to 50,000 yuan.
Where, in violation of article 35 of this law, advertising agents or advertisement publishers fail to publicly announce their fee standards and methods of fee collection, the competent departments for pricing order corrections and may give a fine of up to 50,000 yuan.
Article 61: Where advertising spokespersons exhibit any of the following conduct, the department of market regulation is to confiscate the unlawful gains and give a fine of between 1 to 2 times the unlawful gains:
(1) Making recommendations or testimonials in advertisements for medicines, medical instruments or medical treatment in violation of item 4 in paragraph 1 of article 16 of this law;
(2) Making recommendations or testimonials in advertisements for health foods in violation of item 4 in paragraph 1 of article 18 of this law;
(3) Making recommendations or testimonials in advertisements for products they have not used or services they have not acccepted, in violation of pragraph 1 of article 38 of this law;
(4) Making recommendations or testimonials in advertisements for goods or services, when knowing or where they should know, the advertising is false.
Article 62: Where advertisements are sent in violation of article 43 of this law, the relevant departments order a stop of the unlawful of the conduct and fine the advertisers between 5000 and 30,000 yuan.
Where the second paragraph of article 44 of this law is violated by using the internet to publish advertisements and not clearly labeling a close symbol to ensure one-click closure, the departments for market regulation are to order corrections and fine the advertiser 5,000 to 30,000 RMB.
Article 63: Where, in violation of article 45 of this law, managers of public venues, telecommunications operators or internet information service providers, do not curb advertising advertising activities that they clearly know, or should know, are illegal; the market regulation department is to confiscate unlawful gains, and where the unlawful gains are more than 50,000 yuan, give a fine of between one to three times the amount of unlawful gains; and where the amount of unlawful gains is less than 50,000 yuan, give a fine of between 10,000 and 50,000 yuan; where the circumstances are serious, the relevant departments stop the relevant operations in accordance with law.
Article 64: Where, in violation of this law, applications for review of advertisements conceal the real situation or provide false materials, the advertisement review organs do not accept them or do not approve them, give warnings, and do not accept the applicants’ applications for review of advertisements for 1 year; where the advertisement approvals are obtained by deceit, bribery or other improper methods, the advertisement review organs will revoke it, and give a fine of between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan, and will not accept the applicants applications for review of advertisments for 3 years.
Article 65: Where, in violation of this law, advertisement inspection approval documents are fabricated, altered or lent out, the department for market regulation is to confiscate the unlawful gains and give a fine of between 10,000 and 100,000 yuan.
Article 66: Where there is illegal conduct provided for in this law, the administrative departments for market regulation are to enter it into the credit archive and publicly display it in accordance with relevant laws and administrative regulations.
Article 67: Where radio stations, television stations, periodicals and audio-visual publishing units publish unlawful advertisements, covertly publish advertisements in the form of news reports, or covertly publish advertisements for medical treatment, medicines, medical instruments, or health foods in forms such as introducing health or fitness knowledge, and the department of market regulation gives fines in accordance with this law, it shall notify the departments for radio and television and other relevant departments. The Department of Press, Publication Radio, Film and Television and other relevant departments shall give sanctions to the managing personnel bearing responsibility and other directly responsible personnel in accordance with law; where the circumstances are serious, they may also temporarily suspend the media’s advertisement publication operations.
Where the Department of Press, Publication Radio, Film and Television and other relevant departments do not follow the preceding paragraph to address radio stations, television stations, periodical and audio-visual publishing units, sanctions are given to managing personnel bearing responsibility and other directly responsible personnel in accordance with law.
Article 68: Where an advertiser, advertising agent or advertising publisher has any of the following conduct in violation of this law, they bear civil liability in accordance with law:
(1) harming the physical or psychological well-being of minors or disabled persons in an advertisement;
(2) Counterfeit others’ patents;
(3) belittling the goods or services of other manufacturers and operations;
(4) using the name or image of others without their consent in advertisements ;
(5) Other infringements on the lawful civil rights and interests of others.
Article 69: Where the legally-designated representative of a company or enterprises whose business license has been cancelled due to the publication of false advertisements or other violations of the provisions of this law, have personal liability for the illegal conduct, they may not serve as a directors, supervisors and senior management personnel of a company or enterprise for 3 years from the date on which the company or enterprise’s operating license is cancelled.
Article 70: Where provisions of this Law are violated, and inspection by the department for market regulation is refused or obstructed, or there is other conduct that constitutes a violation of public security management, it is given public security punishment in accordance with law; and where a crime is constituted, pursue criminal responsibility in accordance with law.
Article 71: Where advertisement review organs make a review decision to approve illegal advertising content, management personnel bearing responsibiliy and directly responsible personnel are given sanctions in accordance with law by the organ for appointments and dismissals or the supervisory organ; where a crime is constituted, pursue criminal responsibility in accordance with law.
Article 72: Where departments for market regulation do not investigate and address in accordance with law, illegal advertising conduct discovered while performing advertisement monitoring duties, or illegal advertising conduct that has been complained of or reported, the management personnel bearing responsibility and directly responsible personnel are given punishments.
Where staff of departments of market regulation and relevant departments responsible for advertising regulatory efforts neglect their duties, abuse their power, or distort the law for personal gain, the are given punishments.
Where the conduct listed in the preceding two paragraphs constitutes a crime, it shall be pursued for liability in accordance with law.
Chapter VI: Supplementary Provisions
Article 73: The State encourages and supports the development of public interest advertisement activities to broadcast core socialist values, and advocate civility.
The mass media has the duty to publish public interest advertisements. Radio stations, television stations, and newspaper or periodical publishing units shall publish public interest advertisements in accordance with provisions of layout, duration and length. Measures for the management off public interest advertisements will be formulated by the State Council department for market regulation together with the relevant departments.
Article 74: This law shall take effect on September 1, 2015.
