"Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China"
- The Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China is a law enacted to promote the healthy development of the socialist market economy, encourage and protect fair competition, stop unfair competition, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of operators and consumers.
- Adopted at the third meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress on September 2, 1993, revised at the thirtieth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress on November 4, 2017, and based on April 23, 2019 The "Decision on Amending Eight Laws including the Construction Law of the People's Republic of China" was revised at the 10th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress on the same day.
Chapter 1 General Provisions
Article 1 This law is enacted in order to promote the healthy development of the socialist market economy, encourage and protect fair competition, prevent unfair competition, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of operators and consumers.
Article 2 Operators shall abide by the principles of voluntariness, equality, fairness, and integrity in production and business activities, and abide by laws and business ethics.
The term "unfair competition" as mentioned in this Law refers to the behavior of operators that violate the provisions of this Law, disrupt the order of market competition, and damage the legitimate rights and interests of other operators or consumers during production and business activities.
Operators as mentioned in this Law refer to natural persons, legal persons and unincorporated organizations engaged in the production and operation of goods or the provision of services (hereinafter referred to as goods include services).
Article 3 People's governments at all levels shall take measures to stop unfair competition and create a good environment and conditions for fair competition.
The State Council has established an anti-unfair competition coordination mechanism to study and decide on major anti-unfair competition policies, and to coordinate and handle major issues in maintaining the order of market competition.
Article 4 The departments of the people's governments at or above the county level that perform administrative duties for industry and commerce shall investigate and deal with acts of unfair competition; if laws and administrative regulations stipulate that other departments shall investigate and deal with such acts, such provisions shall prevail.
Article 5: The state encourages, supports and protects all organizations and individuals to conduct social supervision of unfair competition.
State agencies and their staff shall not support or cover unfair competition practices.
Industry organizations should strengthen industry self-discipline, guide and standardize members' competition in accordance with the law, and maintain the order of market competition.
Chapter 2 Unfair Competition
Article 6 Operators shall not engage in the following confusing behaviors to cause people to mistake the goods for others or have a specific connection with others:
(1) Unauthorized use of logos that are identical or similar to others’ product names, packaging, decoration, etc. that have certain influence;
(2) Unauthorized use of other people’s company names (including abbreviations, trade names, etc.), social organization names (including abbreviations, etc.), and names (including pen names, stage names, translated names, etc.) that have certain influence;
(3) Unauthorized use of the main part of domain names, website names, web pages, etc. that have certain influence on others;
(4) Other confusing behaviors that can cause people to mistake the goods for others or have a specific connection with others.
Article 7 Operators shall not use financial or other means to bribe the following units or individuals in order to seek trading opportunities or competitive advantages:
(1) Staff of the counterparty to the transaction;
(2) Units or individuals entrusted by the transaction counterparty to handle relevant matters;
(3) Units or individuals that use their authority or influence to influence transactions.
During trading activities, operators may explicitly pay discounts to counterparties or pay commissions to intermediaries. When operators pay discounts to counterparties and commissions to intermediaries, they must be truthfully recorded in their accounts. Operators who accept discounts and commissions should also record them truthfully in their accounts.
Bribery by a staff member of an operator shall be deemed as the operator's behavior; however, this shall not be the case unless the operator has evidence to prove that the staff member's behavior has nothing to do with seeking trading opportunities or competitive advantages for the operator.
Article 8 Operators shall not make false or misleading commercial publicity about the performance, functions, quality, sales status, user reviews, honors, etc. of their products to deceive or mislead consumers.
Operators shall not help other operators conduct false or misleading business promotions by organizing false transactions or other methods.
Article 9 Operators shall not commit the following acts of infringement of trade secrets:
(1) Obtain the right holder’s business secrets through theft, bribery, fraud, coercion, electronic intrusion or other improper means;
(2) Disclose, use or allow others to use the right holder’s business secrets obtained by means of the preceding paragraph;
(3) Violating confidentiality obligations or violating rights holders’ requirements to keep business secrets, disclosing, using or allowing others to use business secrets in their possession;
(4) Instigate, induce, or help others to violate confidentiality obligations or violate the obligee's requirements for keeping business secrets, and obtain, disclose, use, or allow others to use the obligee's business secrets.
If other natural persons, legal persons and unincorporated organizations other than operators commit the illegal acts listed in the preceding paragraph, they shall be deemed to have infringed upon trade secrets.
If a third party knows or should know that the employees, former employees or other units or individuals of the right holder of the trade secret have committed the illegal acts listed in paragraph 1 of this article, but still obtains, discloses, uses or allows others to use the trade secret, it shall be deemed as a trade infringement. secret.
The term “trade secrets” as mentioned in this Law refers to commercial information such as technical information, business information, etc. that is not known to the public, has commercial value, and for which the obligee has taken corresponding confidentiality measures.
Article 10 Operators conducting sales with prizes shall not have the following circumstances:
(1) The types of prizes, prize redemption conditions, bonus amounts, or prize sales information such as prizes are unclear, which affects prize redemption;
(2) Conduct prize-based sales by falsely claiming that there is a prize or deliberately allowing designated personnel to win the prize;
(3) Lottery-style sales with prizes, the maximum prize amount exceeds 50,000 yuan.
Article 11 Operators shall not fabricate or disseminate false or misleading information to damage the business reputation and product reputation of competitors.
Article 12 Operators who use the Internet to engage in production and business activities must comply with the provisions of this Law.
Operators shall not use technical means to carry out the following behaviors that hinder or disrupt the normal operation of network products or services legally provided by other operators by influencing user choices or other means:
(1) Inserting links or forcing target jumps into the network products or services legally provided by other operators without their consent;
(2) Mislead, deceive, or force users to modify, close, or uninstall network products or services legally provided by other operators;
(3) Maliciously making incompatible network products or services legally provided by other operators;
(4) Other behaviors that hinder or disrupt the normal operation of network products or services legally provided by other operators.
Chapter 3 Investigation into Suspected Unfair Competition Behavior
Article 13 When the supervision and inspection department investigates suspected acts of unfair competition, it may take the following measures:
(1) Entering business premises suspected of unfair competition to conduct inspections;
(2) Question the operators, interested parties and other relevant units and individuals under investigation, and require them to explain the relevant situation or provide other information related to the behavior under investigation;
(3) Inquire and copy agreements, account books, documents, documents, records, business correspondence and other materials related to suspected unfair competition practices;
(4) Seize and detain property related to suspected unfair competition practices;
(5) Inquire about the bank accounts of operators suspected of unfair competition.
To take the measures specified in the preceding paragraph, a written report shall be submitted to the principal person in charge of the supervision and inspection department and shall be subject to approval. To adopt the measures specified in Items 4 and 5 of the preceding paragraph, a written report shall be submitted to the principal person in charge of the supervision and inspection department of the people's government at or above the districted city level, and shall be subject to approval.
Supervision and inspection departments investigating suspected acts of unfair competition shall comply with the provisions of the Administrative Enforcement Law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws and administrative regulations, and shall disclose the results of the investigation to the public in a timely manner.
Article 14: When the supervision and inspection department investigates suspected acts of unfair competition, the operators, interested parties and other relevant units and individuals under investigation shall truthfully provide relevant information or information.
Article 15: Supervision and inspection departments and their staff have the obligation to keep confidential the commercial secrets learned during the investigation.
Article 16 Any unit or individual has the right to report any suspected unfair competition behavior to the supervision and inspection department. After receiving the report, the supervision and inspection department shall handle it in a timely manner in accordance with the law.
The supervision and inspection department shall disclose to the public the telephone number, mailbox or email address for accepting reports, and keep the whistleblower confidential. For real-name reports and relevant facts and evidence provided, the supervision and inspection department shall inform the whistleblower of the handling results.
Chapter 4 Legal Responsibilities
Article 17 If an operator violates the provisions of this Law and causes damage to others, he shall bear civil liability in accordance with the law.
If an operator's legitimate rights and interests are harmed by unfair competition, he may file a lawsuit with the People's Court.
The amount of compensation for an operator who is harmed by unfair competition shall be determined based on the actual losses suffered by the operator due to the infringement; if the actual losses are difficult to calculate, the amount of compensation shall be determined based on the benefits obtained by the infringer due to the infringement. If an operator maliciously commits an infringement of trade secrets and the circumstances are serious, the amount of compensation may be determined to be between one time and five times the amount determined according to the above method. 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 it is difficult to determine the actual losses suffered by the right holder due to the infringement and the benefits obtained by the infringer due to the infringement, the people's court shall make a judgment to the right holder based on the circumstances of the infringement. Compensation of less than one million yuan.
Article 18 If an operator violates the provisions of Article 6 of this Law and engages in confusing behavior, the supervision and inspection department shall order it to stop the illegal behavior and confiscate the illegal goods. If the illegal business volume exceeds 50,000 yuan, a fine of not more than five times the illegal business volume may be imposed; if there is no illegal business volume or the illegal business volume is less than 50,000 yuan, a fine of not more than 250,000 yuan may be imposed. If the circumstances are serious, the business license will be revoked.
If the business name registered by an operator violates the provisions of Article 6 of this Law, the name change registration shall be carried out in a timely manner; before the name is changed, the original enterprise registration authority shall replace the name with a unified social credit code.
Article 19 If an operator violates the provisions of Article 7 of this Law by bribing others, the supervision and inspection department shall confiscate the illegal gains and impose a fine of not less than 100,000 yuan but not more than 3 million yuan. If the circumstances are serious, the business license will be revoked.
Article 20 If an operator violates the provisions of Article 8 of this Law by making false or misleading commercial publicity for its products, or by organizing false transactions or other means to help other operators conduct false or misleading commercial publicity, the supervisory authority shall The inspection department shall order the illegal conduct to cease and impose a fine of not less than 200,000 yuan but not more than 1 million yuan; if the circumstances are serious, the inspection department may impose a fine of not less than 1 million yuan but not more than 2 million yuan, and may revoke the business license.
If an operator violates the provisions of Article 8 of this Law and publishes false advertisements, he shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China.
Article 21 If an operator or other natural person, legal person or unincorporated organization violates the provisions of Article 9 of this Law and infringes commercial secrets, the supervision and inspection department shall order him to stop the illegal act, confiscate the illegal income, and impose a fine of not less than 100,000 yuan but not more than 1 million yuan. A fine of not less than RMB 500,000 but not more than RMB 5 million shall be imposed if the circumstances are serious.
Article 22 If an operator violates the provisions of Article 10 of this Law by conducting sales with prizes, the supervision and inspection department shall order him to stop the illegal act and impose a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan.
Article 23 If an operator violates the provisions of Article 11 of this Law and damages the business reputation or product reputation of competitors, the supervision and inspection department shall order it to stop the illegal behavior, eliminate the impact, and impose a fine of not less than 100,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan; If the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than 500,000 yuan but not more than 3 million yuan will be imposed.
Article 24 If an operator violates the provisions of Article 12 of this Law and obstructs or destroys the normal operation of 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 RMB 100,000 and RMB 500,000. A fine of not less than RMB 500,000 but not more than RMB 3 million shall be imposed if the circumstances are serious.
Article 25 If an operator engages in unfair competition in violation of the provisions of this Law and takes the initiative to eliminate or reduce the harmful consequences of illegal acts and other legal circumstances, he shall be given a lighter or reduced administrative penalty in accordance with the law; if the illegal acts are minor and corrected in a timely manner without causing harmful consequences, , no administrative penalties will be imposed.
Article 26 If an operator engages in unfair competition in violation of the provisions of this Law and is subject to administrative penalties, the supervision and inspection department shall record it in the credit record and make it public in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and administrative regulations.
Article 27 Operators who violate the provisions of this Law shall bear civil, administrative and criminal liabilities. If their property is insufficient to pay, priority shall be given to civil liabilities.
Article 28 Anyone who hinders the supervision and inspection department from performing its duties in accordance with this law, refuses or obstructs the investigation, shall be ordered to make corrections by the supervision and inspection department, and an individual may be fined not more than 5,000 yuan, and the unit may be fined not more than 50,000 yuan. Public security administration penalties may be imposed by the public security organs in accordance with the law.
Article 29 If the parties concerned are dissatisfied with the decision made by the supervision and inspection department, they may apply for administrative reconsideration or file an administrative lawsuit in accordance with the law.
Article 30 Any staff member of the supervision and inspection department who abuses his or her power, neglects his or her duties, engages in malpractice for personal gain, or leaks commercial secrets learned during the investigation shall be punished in accordance with the law.
Article 31 Anyone who violates the provisions of this Law and constitutes a crime shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with the law.
Article 32 In civil trial proceedings for infringement of trade secrets, if the trade secret obligee provides preliminary evidence to prove that it has taken confidentiality measures for the claimed trade secrets and reasonably shows that the trade secrets have been infringed, the alleged infringer shall prove the rights The trade secrets claimed by the person do not fall within the scope of trade secrets stipulated in this Law.
If the trade secret right holder provides preliminary evidence that reasonably indicates that the trade secret has been infringed, and provides one of the following evidences, the alleged infringer shall prove that it has not infringed the trade secret:
(1) There is evidence that the alleged infringer has channels or opportunities to obtain the trade secret, and the information he uses is substantially the same as the trade secret;
(2) There is evidence that the trade secret has been disclosed, used or is at risk of being disclosed or used by the alleged infringer;
(3) There is other evidence showing that the trade secret has been infringed by the alleged infringer.
Chapter 5 Supplementary Provisions
Article 33 This Law shall come into effect on January 1, 2018.
