This is an article to introduce the Chinese advertising law. It is very useful to the people who want to advertising in China. It tells you a lot of information about what you need to comply with in China advertising Business.
Article 37 For acts of falsely advertising commodities or services in violation of this law, the advertising supervision and administration organizations shall order the advertisers to stop publication and to use the amount of expense equal to the expenses for advertising to make open corrections to offset the influence within corresponding scope and to pay a fine ranging from twice to less than five times the amount used for advertising. The advertisement fees collected by advertising agents and publishers of the said advertisements shall be confiscated and a fine ranging from twice to less than five times the amount they have collected for advertising shall be imposed on them. If the case is very serious, their advertising business shall be terminated. If the case is serious enough to constitute a crime, criminal responsibilities shall be affixed.
Article 38 For acts of publishing false advertisements to deceive or mislead consumers, thus causing damages to the lawful rights and interests of consumers who have bought the commodities or accepted the services, the advertisers shall bear civil responsibility and advertising agents and publishers shall bear joint and several responsibility if they have designed, produced and published the advertisements even though they knew or should have known the falseness of the advertisements. Whereas an advertising agent or publisher is unable to provide the true name and address of the advertiser(s), it should bear all the civil responsibility.
Social or other organizations shall bear joint and several responsibilities when recommending commodities or services through false advertisements and thus causing damages to the lawful rights and interests of consumers.
Article 39 For acts that have violated the provisions of paragraph 2 of Article 7 of this law in publishing advertisements, the advertising supervision and administrative organizations shall order the advertisers, advertising agents or publishers responsible to stop publication and openly make corrections, confiscate the advertising expenses and impose a fine ranging from twice to less than five times the amount of the advertising expenses. If the case is very serious, the business license of the advertising business shall be terminated. If the case is serious enough to constitute a crime, criminal responsibilities shall be affixed.
Article 40 For acts violating the provisions of Articles 9 through 12 of this law, the advertising supervision and administrative organizations shall order the responsible advertisers, advertising agents or advertisement publishers to stop publication and make open corrections, confiscate the advertising expenses and impose a fine ranging from twice to less than five times the amount of advertising expenses.
For acts violating the provisions of Article 13 of this law, the advertising supervision and management organizations shall order advertisement publishers to make corrections and impose a fine ranging from over RMB 1,000 to less than RMB 10,000 on the advertisement publishers.
Article 41 For acts of advertising medicines, medical apparatuses, pesticides, foodstuffs, wines and cosmetics in violation of the provisions of Article 31 of this law, the advertising supervision and administrative organizations shall order the responsible advertisers, advertising agents or advertisement publishers to correct or stop publication, confiscate the advertising expenses and may impose a fine concurrently ranging from twice to less than five times the amount of the advertising expenses. If the case is very serious, the advertising business shall be terminated.
Article 42 For acts of advertising tobacco through broadcast, films, television, newspapers or periodicals in violation of the provisions of Article 18 of this law or acts of posing tobacco advertisements in public places, the advertising supervision and administrative organizations shall order the responsible advertisers, advertising agents or advertisement publishers to stop publication, confiscate the advertising expenses and may concurrently impose a fine ranging from twice to less than five times the advertising expenses.
Article 43 For acts of advertising without approval by advertisement examination organizations in violation of the provisions of Article 34, the advertising supervision and administrative organizations shall order the responsible advertisers, advertising agents or advertisement publishers to stop publications, confiscate the advertising expenses and concurrently impose a fine ranging from twice to less than five times the amount of the advertising expenses.
Article 44 For acts of providing false certificates for advertisers, the advertising supervision and administrative organizations shall confiscate the illegal proceeds and impose a fine ranging from RMB10, 000 to RMB100, 000. If the case is serious enough to constitute a crime, criminal responsibilities shall be affixed.
Article 45 If an advertisement examination organization has taken the decision of approval for advertisements that have violated the law, the person in charge directly responsible or other persons directly responsible shall be given administrative punishments by the unit to which they belong, or by organs at the next higher level or by administrative and supervision department.
Article 46 Working personnel of advertising supervision and management organizations and advertisement administrative organs shall be given administrative punishments for committing dereliction of duty, abuse of their power to personal gains. If the case is serious enough to constitute a crime, criminal responsibility shall be affixed.
Article 47 Advertisers, advertising agents or advertisement publishers shall bear civil responsibility if they have committed one of the following acts of infringements in violation of the provisions of this law:
1. The contents of an advertisement are harmful to the physical and mental health of underage persons or handicapped persons;
2. Infringe on and use other's patent rights;
3. Denigrating the commodities or services of other producers or managers;
4. Use of the names or images of others without prior consent; and
5. Other acts that infringe upon the civil rights and interests of others.
Article 48 upon a refuse to accept administrative punishments, a person should apply for a review with the organ at the next higher level within 15 days starting from the date of receiving the notice of punishments. The person concerned may also bring the case directly before the people's court within 15 days starting from the date of receiving the notice of punishments.
The organ of review shall take the review decision within 60 days starting from the date of receipt of the application for review. If the party concerned refuses to accept the decision of the review, it may bring the case before the people's court within 15 days starting from the date of receipt of the notice of review decision. If a review organ fails to take a decision within the time limit, the party concerned may bring the case before the people's court within 15 days starting from the date of expiry of the review period.
If a party concerned fails to apply for a review or bring the case before the people's court and yet refuses to implement the punishment decision, the organ which has taken the decision may apply with the people's court for compulsory enforcement.
