On November 4, 2017, the revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China was adopted at the 30th Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress and will enter into force as of January 1, 2018.
Amendments launched this time focus on regulating acts of unfair competition in the internet field. The amendments clearly state that business operators shall neither give false or misleading publicity for a commercial purpose to certain aspects of their commodities (such as "sales performance" and "user evaluation"), nor organize false deals or take other approaches to help other business operators give deceptive and misleading publicity for the same purpose. If they do, they will be fined up to two million yuan.
In addition, these amendments provide further clarity on the concept of "confusing practices", place limitations on the unauthorized use of others' signs and require that the signs at issue shall be influential to some extent in certain fields. They also clearly specify the range of individuals to which bribes are offered, and stipulate that the practice of offering bribes by any employee of a business operator shall be deemed as one by such business operator. Furthermore, the announced amendments clarify acts of unfair competition in the internet field, such as "taking malicious actions to make online products or services legally supplied by other business operators incompatible".
