synonymAnti Unfair Competition Law(Anti Unfair Competition Law) Generally refers to the Anti Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China
The Law of the People's Republic of China on Combating Unfair Competition is a law formulated to promote the healthy development of the socialist market economy, encourage and protect fair competition, stop acts of unfair competition, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of business operators and consumers.[1]
Adopted at the Third Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress on September 2, 1993, revised at the 30th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress on November 4, 2017, in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Construction Law of the People's Republic of China and Other Eight Laws adopted at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress on April 23, 2019Correction.[1]
Chinese name
Law of the People's Republic of China on Anti-Unfair Competition
Adopted at the Third Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress on September 2, 1993;
Revised at the 30th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress on November 4, 2017;
It is amended according to the Decision on Amending Eight Laws Including the Construction Law of the People's Republic of China at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress on April 23, 2019.[1-2]
On November 22, 2022, the General Administration of Market Supervision drafted the Law of the People's Republic of China on Combating Unfair Competition (Draft for Comments on Revised Draft), which is now open to the public for comments. The deadline for feedback is December 22, 2022.[4]
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general provisions
Chapter II Unfair Competition
Chapter III Investigation of Suspected Unfair Competition
Chapter IV Legal Liability
Chapter V Supplementary Provisions
general provisions
Article 1 This Law is formulated in order to promote the healthy development of the socialist market economy, encourage and protect fair competition, stop acts of unfair competition, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of business operators and consumers.
Article 2 In their production and business activities, business operators shall follow the principles of voluntariness, equality, fairness and integrity, and abide by laws and business ethics.
The term "unfair competition" as used in this Law refers to the acts of business operators that, in their production and business operations, violate the provisions of this Law, disrupt the order of market competition and damage the legitimate rights and interests of other business operators or consumers.
The term "business operators" as used in this Law refers to natural persons, legal persons and unincorporated organizations engaged in the production and operation of commodities or the provision of services (hereinafter, commodities include services).
Article 3 People's governments at all levels should take measures to stop acts of unfair competition and create a good environment and conditions for fair competition.
The State Council has established a coordination mechanism for anti unfair competition work, studied and decided on major anti unfair competition policies, and coordinated the handling of major issues related to maintaining market competition order.
Article 4 The administrative departments for industry and commerce of the people's governments at or above the county level shall investigate and deal with acts of unfair competition;Where laws and administrative regulations provide that other departments shall investigate and deal with the case, such provisions shall prevail.
Article 5 The State encourages, supports and protects all organizations and individuals to exercise social supervision over acts of unfair competition.
State organs and their staff members shall not support or cover up acts of unfair competition.
Industry organizations should strengthen self-discipline, guide and regulate members' competition according to law, and maintain market competition order.
Chapter II Unfair Competition
Article 6 Business operators shall not commit the following acts of confusion, which may lead people to mistakenly believe that they are the goods of others or have specific connections with others:
（1） Unauthorized use of marks identical with or similar to the name, package and decoration of the goods that have certain influence on others;
（2） Unauthorized use of enterprise names (including abbreviations, shop names, etc.), social organization names (including abbreviations, etc.), and names (including pen names, stage names, translated names, etc.) that have certain influence on others;
（3） Unauthorized use of the main part of the domain name, website name, web page, etc. that has certain influence on others;
（4） Other acts of confusion sufficient to mislead people into thinking that they are other people's goods or have a specific connection with others.
Article 7 Business operators shall not bribe the following units or individuals with money, property or other means to seek trading opportunities or competitive advantages:
（1） Staff of the counterparty;
（2） The unit or individual entrusted by the transaction counterpart to handle relevant affairs;
（3） Units or individuals that use their power or influence to influence transactions.
In the course of trading activities, an operator may explicitly pay a discount to the trading counterpart or a commission to an intermediary.Operators who pay discounts to trading counterparts and commissions to intermediaries shall truthfully enter them into their accounts.Operators accepting discounts and commissions shall also truthfully enter them into their accounts.
If a staff member of a business operator makes a bribe, it shall be recognized as an act of the business operator;However, unless the business operator has evidence to prove that the behavior of the staff member has nothing to do with seeking trading opportunities or competitive advantages for the business operator.
Article 8 Business operators shall not conduct false or misleading commercial propaganda to deceive or mislead consumers about the performance, function, quality, sales status, user evaluation, and past honors of their commodities.
Operators shall not help other operators to conduct false or misleading commercial propaganda by organizing false transactions or other means.
Article 9 Business operators shall not commit the following acts of infringing trade secrets:
（1） Obtaining the obligee's business secrets by theft, bribery, fraud, coercion, electronic intrusion or other improper means;
（2） Disclose, use or allow others to use the trade secrets of the obligee obtained by the means mentioned in the preceding paragraph;
（3） Disclose, use or allow others to use the trade secrets they hold in violation of their confidentiality obligations or the obligee's requirements for keeping trade secrets;
（4） Instigating, luring or helping others to violate confidentiality obligations or violate the obligee's requirements for keeping business secrets, to obtain, disclose, use or allow others to use the obligee's business secrets.
Any natural person, legal person or unincorporated organization other than the business operator who commits any of the illegal acts listed in the preceding paragraph shall be deemed to have infringed upon business secrets.
If a third party obtains, discloses, uses or allows others to use the trade secret even though it knows or should know that the employee, former employee or other unit or individual of the obligee of trade secret has committed the illegal act listed in the first paragraph of this article, it shall be deemed as an infringement of trade secret.
The term "trade secret" as used in this Law refers to commercial information such as technical information and business information that are not known to the public, have commercial value and have been protected by the obligee.
Article 10 An operator shall not have the following circumstances when selling with prizes:
（1） Unclear prize sales information, such as the type, conditions, amount or prizes of the prizes set, affects prize redemption;
（2） Selling with prizes by means of deceit of falsely claiming that there is a prize or deliberately letting a designated person win the prize;
（3） For sales with prizes in the form of lottery, the maximum amount of prize exceeds 50000 yuan.
Article 11 Business operators shall not fabricate or disseminate false or misleading information to damage the business reputation and commodity reputation of competitors.
Article 12 Operators who use the Internet to engage in production and business activities shall abide by the provisions of this Law.
Business operators shall not use technical means to affect users' choice or other ways to conduct the following acts that hinder or disrupt the normal operation of network products or services legally provided by other business operators:
（1） Insert links and force target jump in the network products or services legally provided by other operators without their consent;
（2） Misleading, deceiving or forcing users to modify, shut down or uninstall network products or services legally provided by other operators;
（3） Malicious implementation of incompatible network products or services legally provided by other operators;
（4） Other acts that hinder or disrupt the normal operation of network products or services legally provided by other operators.
Chapter III Investigation of Suspected Unfair Competition
Article 13 The supervision and inspection departments may take the following measures when investigating suspected acts of unfair competition:
（1） Enter the business premises suspected of unfair competition for inspection;
（2） Inquire about the business operators, interested parties and other relevant units and individuals under investigation, and require them to explain the relevant information or provide other materials related to the conduct under investigation;
（3） Inquire and copy agreements, account books, bills, documents, records, business correspondence and other materials related to suspected acts of unfair competition;
（4） Seize and detain the property related to the suspected unfair competition;
（5） Query the bank accounts of operators suspected of unfair competition.
The adoption of the measures specified in the preceding paragraph shall be reported in writing to the main person in charge of the supervision and inspection department and be approved.The adoption of the measures specified in sub paragraphs (4) and (5) of the preceding paragraph shall be reported in writing to the principal responsible person of the supervision and inspection department of the people's government at or above the level of a city divided into districts, and shall be subject to approval.
When investigating acts of unfair competition, the supervision and inspection department shall comply with the Administrative Compulsory Law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws and administrative regulations, and shall disclose the investigation results to the public in a timely manner.
Article 14 When the supervision and inspection departments investigate suspected acts of unfair competition, the operators, interested parties and other relevant units and individuals under investigation shall truthfully provide relevant information or circumstances.
Article 15 The supervision and inspection departments and their staff members shall have the obligation to keep confidential the trade secrets they learned during the investigation.
Article 16 Any unit or individual has the right to report any suspected act of unfair competition to the supervision and inspection department, which shall deal with it in a timely manner according to law after receiving the report.
The supervision and inspection department shall disclose to the public the telephone number, mailbox or e-mail address of the informant and keep confidential for the informant.Where a real name report is made and relevant facts and evidence are provided, the supervision and inspection department shall inform the informant of the handling result.
Chapter IV Legal Liability
Article 17 If an operator violates the provisions of this Law and causes damage to others, it shall bear civil liability according to law.
If the legitimate rights and interests of business operators are damaged by acts of unfair competition, they may bring a lawsuit to the people's court.
The amount of compensation for operators who have suffered damage due to unfair competition shall be determined according to the actual losses they have suffered as a result of infringement;If the actual loss is difficult to calculate, it shall be determined according to the benefits obtained by the infringer due to the infringement.If a business operator commits an act of infringing trade secrets in bad faith and the circumstances are serious, the amount of compensation may be determined between one time and five times the amount determined in accordance with the above methods.The amount of compensation shall also include the reasonable expenses paid by the operator to stop the infringement.
If an operator violates the provisions of Articles 6 and 9 of this Law, and the actual losses suffered by the obligee due to the infringement and the interests obtained by the infringer due to the infringement are difficult to determine, the people's court shall, according to the circumstances of the infringement, award a compensation of less than 5 million yuan to the obligee.
Article 18 Where an operator violates the provisions of Article 6 of this Law by committing acts of confusion, the supervision and inspection department shall order it to stop the illegal act and confiscate its illegal commodities.If the amount of illegal business operations is more than 50000 yuan, a fine of less than five times the amount of illegal business operations may also be imposed;If there is no illegal business volume or the illegal business volume is less than 50000 yuan, a fine of not more than 250000 yuan may also be imposed.If the circumstances are serious, the business license shall be revoked.
Where an enterprise name registered by a business operator violates the provisions of Article 6 of this Law, it shall go through the registration of name change in a timely manner;Before the name is changed, the original enterprise registration authority shall replace its name with a unified social credit code.
Article 19 Where an operator bribes others in violation of the provisions of Article 7 of this Law, the supervision and inspection department shall confiscate the illegal gains and impose a fine of not less than 100000 yuan but not more than 3 million yuan.If the circumstances are serious, the business license shall be revoked.
Article 20 Where an operator, in violation of the provisions of Article 8 of this Law, conducts false or misleading commercial propaganda on its goods, or helps other operators to conduct false or misleading commercial propaganda by organizing false transactions or other means, the supervision and inspection department shall order it to stop the illegal act and impose a fine of not less than 200000 yuan but not more than 1 million yuan;If the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than one million yuan but not more than two million yuan shall be imposed and the business license may be revoked.
If an operator violates the provisions of Article 8 of this Law by publishing false advertisements, it shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China.
Article 21 Where business operators and other natural persons, legal persons and unincorporated organizations violate the provisions of Article 9 of this Law by infringing on trade secrets, the supervision and inspection departments shall order them to stop their illegal acts, confiscate their illegal gains and impose a fine of not less than 100000 yuan but not more than 1 million yuan;If the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than 500000 yuan but not more than 5 million yuan shall be imposed.
Article 22 Where an operator sells with prizes in violation of the provisions of Article 10 of this Law, the supervision and inspection department shall order it to stop the illegal act and impose a fine of not less than 50000 yuan but not more than 500000 yuan.
Article 23 Where an operator violates the provisions of Article 11 of this Law and damages the business reputation and commodity reputation of a competitor, the supervision and inspection department shall order it to stop the illegal act, eliminate the impact, and impose a fine of not less than 100000 yuan but not more than 500000 yuan;If the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than 500000 yuan but not more than 3 million yuan shall be imposed.
Article 24 Where an operator, in violation of the provisions of Article 12 of this Law, obstructs or destroys the normal operation of the network products or services legally provided by other operators, the supervision and inspection department shall order it to stop the illegal act and impose a fine of not less than 100000 yuan but not more than 500000 yuan;If the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than 500000 yuan but not more than 3 million yuan shall be imposed.
Article 25 Where an operator engages in unfair competition in violation of the provisions of this Law and has taken the initiative to eliminate or mitigate the harmful consequences of illegal acts and other legal circumstances, it shall be given a lighter or mitigated administrative punishment according to law;If an illegal act is minor and corrected in a timely manner, and no harmful consequences are caused, no administrative penalty shall be imposed.
Article 26 Where an operator, in violation of the provisions of this Law, engages in unfair competition and is subject to administrative punishment, the supervision and inspection department shall record it in its credit record and publicize it in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and administrative regulations.
Article 27 Where an operator, in violation of the provisions of this Law, should bear civil, administrative and criminal liability, and its property is insufficient to pay for it, it shall have priority in assuming civil liability.
Article 28 Whoever obstructs a supervision and inspection department from performing its duties in accordance with this Law, refuses or obstructs an investigation, shall be ordered by the supervision and inspection department to make corrections, may be fined not more than 5000 yuan for an individual, not more than 50000 yuan for a unit, and may be given administrative penalties for public security by the public security organ according to law.
Article 29 If a party refuses to accept the decision made by the supervision and inspection department, he may apply for administrative reconsideration or bring an administrative lawsuit according to law.
Article 30 Any staff member of the supervision and inspection department who abuses his power, neglects his duty, engages in malpractices for personal gain, or divulges business secrets he learned in the course of investigation shall be given sanctions according to law.
Article 31 Anyone who violates the provisions of this Law and constitutes a crime shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law.
Article 32 In the civil proceedings for infringement of trade secrets, the obligee of trade secrets shall provide preliminary evidence to prove that it has taken confidentiality measures against the trade secrets it claims, and reasonably indicates that the trade secrets have been infringed, and the suspected infringer shall prove that the trade secrets claimed by the obligee do not belong to the trade secrets prescribed in this Law.
If the obligee of trade secret provides preliminary evidence reasonably indicating that the trade secret has been infringed, and one of the following evidences is provided, the suspected infringer shall prove that it does not infringe trade secret:
（1） There is evidence that the suspected infringer has channels or opportunities to obtain trade secrets, and the information used by him is substantially the same as the trade secret;
（2） There is evidence that the trade secret has been disclosed and used by the suspected infringer or there is a risk of being disclosed and used;
（3） There is other evidence that the trade secret has been infringed by the suspected infringer.
Chapter V Supplementary Provisions
Article 33 This Law shall come into force as of January 1, 2018.[1]
judicial interpretation
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On March 17, 2022, the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Combating Unfair Competition was released and will come into force on March 20, 2022.The Interpretation has 29 articles in total. According to the revised Anti Unfair Competition Law, it focuses on the second article of the Anti Unfair Competition Law, counterfeiting and confusion, false publicity, online unfair competition and other issues.[3]
