Administrative Measures for Internet Advertising
Promulgation Authorities: The State Administration for Market Regulation
Release Date: 2023-02-25
Effective Date: 2023-05-01
Source: http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2016/content_5120707.htm
Original Title: 互联网广告管理办法
Administrative Measures for Internet Advertising
Decree No. 72 of the State Administration for Market Regulation
Article 1 These Measures are enacted in accordance with 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 for the purposes of regulating Internet advertising activities, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, promoting the healthy development of Internet advertising industry and maintaining the market economic order of fair competition.
Article 2 The Advertising Law and these Measures shall apply to commercial advertising activities for the direct or indirect promotion of commodities or services within the territory of the People’s Republic of China by making use of websites, webpages, internet applications and other internet media in the forms of texts, pictures, audios, videos or other forms.The information that shall be displayed, indicated or notified as required by laws, administrative regulations, departmental rules, mandatory national standards and other relevant provisions of the State shall be subject to such provisions.
Article 3 Internet advertisements shall be authentic and legal, adhere to the correct orientation, express the advertisement content in a healthy form of expression and comply with the requirements of socialist spiritual civilization development and the promotion of the fine traditional Chinese culture.The Internet advertising activities shall be carried out under the laws and regulations, the principle of good faith and fair competition.
The State encourages and supports the Internet public service advertisement campaigns to disseminate the core socialist values and the fine traditional Chinese culture and advocate civilized social conduct.
Article 4 The provisions of the Advertising Law and these Measures on advertisement publishers shall apply to the natural persons, legal persons or other organizations that publish advertisements via the Internet for advertisers or advertising agencies entrusted by such advertisers.The provisions of the Advertising Law and these Measures on Internet information service providers shall apply to the natural persons, legal persons or other organizations that provide information services through the Internet; the provisions of the Advertising Law and these Measures on advertising agencies, advertisement publishers and other subjects shall apply to those who engage in the design, production, agency, publishing and other activities of Internet advertisements.
Article 5 Advertising industry organizations shall, in accordance with laws, regulations, departmental rules and articles of association, formulate code of practice, self-discipline conventions and group standards, strengthen industry self-discipline, guide their members to actively practice the core socialist values and engage in Internet advertising activities in accordance with the law, promote the building of integrity and advance the healthy development of the industry.
Article 6 No entity or individual may design, produce, provide agency services or publish advertisements by use of the Internet for products or services which are prohibited by laws and administrative regulations from manufacture or sales or provision, or for commodities or services whose advertising is prohibited.It is prohibited to publish tobacco (including e-cigarette) advertisements by use of the Internet.
It is prohibited to publish prescription drug advertisements by use of the Internet, unless otherwise provided by laws and administrative regulations.
Article 7 Advertisements for medical treatment, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, pesticides, veterinary drugs, health food, formula food for special medical purposes and other advertisements which are subject to censorship as required by laws and administrative regulations shall be subject to censorship by advertisement censorship authorities prior to the publication, and such advertisements shall not be published without going through examination.Internet advertisements subject to censorship shall be released in strict accordance with the contents having passed the examination and may not be edited, spliced or otherwise modified. Where it is necessary to alter any content of an advertisement that has passed the censorship, a new application for the censorship of advertisement shall be made.
Article 8 It is prohibited to publish in disguised form advertisements for medical treatment, drugs, medical devices, health food or formula food for special medical purposes in the form of introducing knowledge on health or health maintenance.For the introduction of knowledge on health and health maintenance, the address, contact details, shopping links and other contents of commodity operators or service providers of relevant medical treatment, drugs, medical devices, health food, or formula food for special medical purposes shall not be presented on the same page or together with such knowledge.
Article 9 An Internet advertisement shall be identifiable and can make consumers recognize it as an advertisement.With regard to commodities or services ranked under competitive bidding, advertisement publishers shall indicate conspicuously the word “Advertisement” to distinguish them from the natural search results.
Except for circumstances where advertisements are prohibited by the laws and administrative regulations from being published or published in a disguised form, advertisement publishers shall indicate conspicuously the word “Advertisement” for goods or services promoted by means of knowledge introduction, experience sharing, consumption evaluation, etc., with shopping links and other purchase methods attached.
Article 10 Where an Internet advertisement is published in the form of pop-up or otherwise, an advertiser and advertisement publisher shall clearly mark the closure sign to ensure the closure of the advertisement by one click and shall not fall under any of the following circumstances:
(I) there is no closure sign, or the advertisement cannot be closed until the time expires;
(II) the closure sign is false, unidentifiable or difficult to be positioned, etc., setting up obstacles for closing the advertisement;
(III) it takes more than two clicks to close the advertisement;
(IV) during the browsing of the same page or the same document, advertisements continue to pop up after the advertisement is closed, which affects the normal internet access by users; or
(V) other behaviors that affect the closure of the advertisement by one click.Open-screen advertisements displayed and published at the time of launching Internet applications shall be governed by the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
Article 11 It is not allowed to cheat or mislead users to click on or browse advertisements in any of the following ways:
(I) false system or software updates, error reporting, removal, notice and other prompts;
(II) false signs of play, start, pause, stop, return, etc.;
(III) false promise of rewards; and
(IV) other methods to cheat or mislead users to click on or browse advertisements.
Article 12 It is prohibited to publish advertisements for medical treatment, pharmaceuticals, health food, formula food for special medical purposes, medical devices, cosmetics, alcohol, cosmetology, as well as advertisements for online games that have negative impact on the physical and mental health of minors on the Internet media such as websites, webpages, Internet applications and official accounts targeted at minors.
Article 13 Advertisers shall be responsible for the authenticity of the content of Internet advertisements.Where an advertiser publishes an Internet advertisement, its subject qualification, administrative license and cited information shall meet the requirements of laws and regulations, and relevant supporting documents shall be true, legal and valid.
The advertiser may publish advertisements on its own through its self-built websites, as well as its own client terminals, Internet applications, official accounts, online store pages and other Internet media, or entrust advertising agencies and advertisement publishers to publish advertisements.
Where any advertiser publishes Internet advertisements on its own, the advertisement publishing behavior shall meet the requirements of laws and regulations, and advertisement archives shall be established and updated in a timely manner. The relevant archives shall be kept for at least three years from the date of end of advertisement publishing.
Where any advertiser entrusts others with the publication of an Internet advertisement, any modification to the content of the advertisement shall be timely notified to the advertising agencies and advertisement publishers which provide services for it in writing or other confirmable forms.
Article 14 Advertising agencies and advertisement publishers shall establish, improve and implement systems of registration, examination and archives management in respect of Internet advertising business according to the following provisions:
(I) verifying and registering the real identity, address, valid contact details and other information of advertisers, creating advertisement archives and checking and updating them on a regular basis, and recording and keeping the electronic data relating to advertising activities; the relevant archives shall be kept for at least three years from the date of end of advertisement publishing;
(II) verifying relevant supporting documents and checking the content of advertisements, and for advertisements with inconsistent content or incomplete supporting documents, advertising agencies shall not provide design, production and agency services, and advertisement publishers shall not publish such advertisements; and
(III) employing advertisement reviewers who are familiar with advertising laws and regulations or establishing an advertisement review organization.For the purpose of these Measures, “identity information” includes name, unified social credit code (ID number), etc.
Advertising agencies and advertisement publishers shall cooperate with the market regulatory authorities in the survey of Internet advertising industry in accordance with the law and provide true, accurate and complete information in a timely manner.
Article 15 Where an Internet advertisement is published by means of algorithmic recommendation or otherwise, the relevant rules of the algorithmic recommendation service and the record of advertisement placement shall be included in the advertisement archives.
Article 16 An Internet platform operator shall, in the process of providing Internet information services, take measures to prevent and stop illegal advertisements and abide by the following provisions:
(I) recording and keeping the real identity information of the users who publish advertisements by using its information services, and keeping the information records for at least three years from the date of end of information service provision;
(II) monitoring and screening the contents of advertisements published by using its information services, taking necessary measures such as notifying for correction, deleting, blocking and disconnecting the published links to stop illegal advertisements if any and keeping the relevant records;
(III) establishing an effective mechanism for accepting and handling complaints and reports, setting up convenient portals or releasing the ways to lodge complaints and reports, and accepting and handling complaints and reports in a timely manner;
(IV) not obstructing or impeding, by technical means or other means, the market regulatory authorities from carrying out advertisement monitoring;
(V) cooperating with the market regulatory authorities in investigating illegal activities in Internet advertising, promptly adopting technical means to keep the evidence materials on suspected illegal advertisements as required by the market regulatory authorities and truthfully providing the real identity information of the relevant advertisement publishers, the record of modification of advertisements and the transaction information of the relevant commodities or services; and
(VI) taking measures such as warning, suspending or terminating services against the users who publish illegal advertisements by using its information services according to the service agreements and platform rules.
Article 17 Publishing and sending advertisements by means of Internet shall not affect the normal internet access by users, and it is not allowed to insert advertisements ranked under competitive bidding in the search results of government service websites, webpages, Internet applications, official accounts and so on.Without the consent or request of users, or with explicit refusal by users, it is not allowed to send Internet advertisements to their vehicles, navigation equipment, intelligent home appliances etc. and it is prohibited to attach advertisements or advertising links to the emails or Internet instant messages sent by users.
Article 18 When publishing an Internet advertisement containing a link, an advertiser, advertising agency and advertisement publisher shall verify the advertisement contents in the link at the next lower level which are related to the front-end advertisement.
Article 19 Where the promotion of goods or services by online live streaming constitutes a commercial advertisement, a product seller or service provider shall bear the responsibilities and obligations of the advertiser in accordance with the law.Where a live-streaming room operator accepts entrustment to provide advertising design, production, agency and publishing services, it shall bear the responsibilities and obligations of the advertising agency and advertisement publisher in accordance with the law.
Where a live-streamer accepts entrustment to provide advertising design, production, agency and publishing services, he/she shall bear the responsibilities and obligations of the advertising agency and advertisement publisher in accordance with the law.
Where a live-streamer recommends or testifies for a commodity or service in his/her own name or image, which constitutes an advertising endorsement, he/she shall bear the responsibilities and obligations of an advertising endorser in accordance with the law.
Article 20 Administrative penalties imposed on illegal Internet advertisements shall be governed by the market regulatory authority in the place where an advertisement publisher is located. Where it is difficult for the market regulatory authority in the place where the advertisement publisher is located to govern an advertiser, advertising agency, advertising endorser or Internet information service provider located in another place, the case of violation may be referred to and handled by the market regulatory authority in the place where the said subject is located. If an advertising endorser is a natural person, the market regulatory authority at the place where the agency which provides brokerage services for the advertising endorser is located, the place of household registration or habitual residence of the advertising endorser may exercise jurisdiction.The market regulatory authority in the place where the advertiser or advertising agency is located may also exercise jurisdiction if it has found clues to illegal activities or has received complaints or reports.
Administrative penalties imposed on an advertiser for publishing an illegal advertisement on its own shall be governed by the market regulatory authority in the place where the advertiser is located.
Article 21 In investigating and dealing with illegal Internet advertisements, the market regulatory authority may exercise the following functions and powers in accordance with the law:
(I) conducting an on-site inspection of the place where the illegal advertising activities are suspected to be carried out;
(II) inquiring of the party suspected to be involved in the illegal act or its legal representative, principal and other relevant personnel and investigating the relevant entities or individuals;
(III) requiring the party suspected to be involved in the illegal act to provide the relevant supporting documents within a prescribed time limit;
(IV) consulting and copying the contracts, bills and account books relating to the advertisement which is suspected to be involved in the illegal act, advertising works and the relevant data of the Internet advertisement, including keeping the content of the Internet advertisement by means of screen capture, screen recording, webpage retention, photographing, audio recording and video recording;
(V) seizing and detaining the advertising articles, operational tools, equipment and other property directly relating to the suspected illegal advertisement;
(VI) ordering the suspension of the publishing of suspected illegal advertisements which may cause serious consequences; and
(VII) other functions and powers provided for by laws and administrative regulations.When the market regulatory authority exercises its functions and powers provided for in the preceding paragraph in accordance with the law, the party concerned shall provide assistance and cooperation, and shall not refuse, obstruct or conceal the true situation.
Article 22 Technical monitoring records made by the market regulatory authority on Internet advertisements may be used as evidence for imposing administrative penalties or adopting administrative measures against illegal advertisements.
Article 23 Whoever violates Article 6 or Article 12 hereof shall be punished in accordance with Article 57 of the Advertising Law.
Article 24 Any advertisement publisher that, in violation of Article 7 hereof, publishes Internet advertisements without being censored or not according to the contents which have passed the censorship shall be punished in accordance with Article 58 of the Advertising Law.
Article 25 Any advertisement publisher who, in violation of Article 8 or Article 9 hereof, publishes advertisements for medical treatment, drugs, medical devices, health food or formula food for special medical purposes in a disguised form, or whose Internet advertisements are not identifiable shall be punished in accordance with Paragraph 3, Article 59 of the Advertising Law.
Article 26 Whoever, in violation of Article 10 hereof, publishes Internet advertisements in the form of pop-up or otherwise but fails to indicate prominently the closure sign to ensure the closure by one click shall be punished in accordance with Paragraph 2, Article 62 of the Advertising Law.Where any advertisement publisher commits any of the acts specified in the preceding paragraph, the market regulatory authority at or above the county level shall order it to make corrections and impose a fine of not less than 5,000 yuan but not more than 30,000 yuan on it if it refuses to do so.
Article 27 In the event of violation of Article 11 hereof by deceiving or misleading users into clicking on or browsing an advertisement, if there are provisions in laws and administrative regulations, such provisions shall prevail; if there are no such provisions in laws and administrative regulations, the market regulatory authority at or above the county level shall order the offender to make corrections and impose a fine of not less than 5,000 yuan but not more than 30,000 yuan on the advertiser, advertising agency or advertisement publisher.
Article 28 Where any advertising agency or advertisement publisher, in violation of Paragraph 1, Article 14, Article 15 or Article 18 hereof, fails to establish or improve a management system for advertising business or fails to verify the contents of advertisements, it shall be punished in accordance with Paragraph 1, Article 60 of the Advertising Law.Where any advertiser, in violation of Paragraph 4, Article 13, Article 15 or Article 18 hereof, fails to establish advertisement archives or verify the contents of advertisements, the market regulatory authority at or above the county level shall order it to make corrections and may impose a fine of not more than 50,000 yuan on it.
Where any advertiser, advertising agency or advertisement publisher can prove that it has fulfilled the relevant responsibilities, adopted measures to prevent the tampering of linked advertisements and provided the real name, address and valid contact information of the subject of illegal advertising activities, it may be given a lighter, mitigated or no administrative penalty in accordance with the law.
Where any advertising agency or advertisement publisher, in violation of Paragraph 3, Article 14 hereof, refuses to cooperate with the market regulatory authority in the investigation of Internet advertising industry or provides false materials, the market regulatory authority at or above the county level shall order it to make corrections and may impose a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 30,000 yuan on it.
Article 29 For any Internet platform operator that violates the provisions of Items (I), (III) to (V) of Article 16 hereof, if there are provisions in laws and administrative regulations, such provisions shall prevail; in the absence of such provisions, the market regulatory authority at or above the county level shall order it to make corrections and impose a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 50,000 yuan on it.Where the Internet platform operator, in violation of Item (II), Article 16 hereof, knows or should have known that Internet advertising activities are illegal but fails to stop such activities, it shall be punished according to Article 63 of the Advertising Law.
Article 30 If there are provisions in laws and administrative regulations on the violation of Paragraph 1, Article 17 hereof, such provisions shall prevail; in the absence of such provisions, the market regulatory authority at or above the county level shall order the advertiser, advertising agency or advertisement publisher to make corrections and impose a fine of not less than 5,000 yuan but not more than 30,000 yuan on it.Whoever, in violation of Paragraph 2, Article 17 hereof, sends Internet advertisements to a user’s means of transport, navigation equipment, intelligent home appliances, etc. without the user’s consent or request or with the user’s explicit refusal shall be punished according to Paragraph 1, Article 62 of the Advertising Law; whoever attaches advertisements or advertising links to the emails or Internet instant messages sent by the user shall be ordered by the market regulatory authority at or above the county level to make corrections and given a fine of not less than 5,000 yuan but not more than 30,000 yuan.
Article 31 The decisions of administrative penalties made by the market regulatory authority according to the Advertising Law and these Measures shall be made public through the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System in accordance with the law; if the case is of a vile nature, serious circumstance or relatively serious harm to the society, the offender shall be included in the list of subjects with seriously illegal and dishonest acts in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Administrative Measures for the List of Subjects with Seriously Illegal and Dishonest Acts under Market Regulation.
Article 32 These Measures shall come into force as of 1 May 2023, simultaneously repealing the Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising promulgated under Decree No. 87 of the former State Administration for Industry and Commerce on 4 July 2016.