On July 29th, China State Administration for Market Regulation announced the draft of Guidelines to Strengthen Online Live Streaming Marketing Activities Supervision for public comments. Any comments shall be returned before August 28th, 2020. [1]
This draft mainly stipulates the following aspects:
Legal liabilities for live streamers
When the live streaming is considered as commercial advertisements, the live streamers should bear responsibility and obligation as an advertiser or a brand spokesperson as specified in Advertising Law.
According to Advertising Law, commercial advertising refers to activities in which commodity dealers or service providers directly or indirectly introduce via certain media and in certain forms, goods or services marketed by them in China.
Prohibited products
Products or services banned to produce or sell by laws and regulations should not be sold in live streaming.
Products or services prohibited from commercial advertising should not be sold in live streaming, e.g. tobacco.
Products or services prohibited from online sales should not be sold in live streaming, e.g.specific nutritionally complete formula food.
* Note: according to Market Access Negative List (2019), specific nutritionally complete formula foods (i.e. a kind of food for special medical purpose) should not be traded online.
For products subject to advertisement examination, including health food and food for special medical purposes, etc., advertisement should not be released in live streaming unless it is granted approval.
Besides, live streaming for CBEC imported dietary supplements will also be affected, because they could not claim health functions in live streaming as it will be considered advertisement. [2]
Illegal live streaming activities
Violations against the following seven laws in live streaming activities will be held accountable: E-commerce Law, Consumer Protection Law, Anti-unfair Competition Law, Product Quality Law, Food Safety Law, Advertising Law, Price Law.
Regarding Food Safety Law, the emphasis of supervision will be laid on selling foods without business certifications, selling foods that do not conform to safety standards, selling foods with fake production date, and foods exceeding shelf lives.
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