Navigating the Advertising Regulation and Enforcement Landscape in China: Key issues to watch in 2025

In March 2025, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) in China published a newsletter detailing the government's 2024 enforcement actions against illegal advertisements. According to official statistics, in 2024, the AMRs at all levels nationwide investigated and addressed 46,900 cases of illegal advertisements, resulting in fines totaling RMB349 million (circa USD48 million). Notably, over 30,000 of these cases were internet advertising violations, which led to fines amounting to RMB187 million (circa USD26 million). These statistics underscore the ongoing efforts to enforce advertising regulations and penalize violations. In addition to enforcement actions, lawmakers at both the national and provincial levels were also active in 2024, introducing several new regulations and guidelines. This article provides a high-level review of the key regulatory developments and enforcement actions from 2024 and offers an outlook on the trends to watch in 2025.

A Review of 2024

At the national level, several regulatory changes directly or indirectly related to advertising regulation came into effect in 2024, including:

• Enforcement Guidelines on the Identifiability Requirement of Internet Advertisements. These guidelines aim to enhance the transparency and identifiability of internet advertisements, ensuring that consumers can clearly understand the content of advertisements and information relating to the advertiser. While advertisement identifiability and labelling requirements are not new in China, as the PRC Advertising Law already imposes such requirements, the Enforcement Guidelines further substantiate these existing principles, provide practical guidance to ensure compliance and introduce some exemptions to the labelling requirement.
• Implementation of the Regulation of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law. A key highlight related to advertising and marketing is the prohibition against tampering with, fabricating, or concealing user reviews, as these reviews play a vital role in guiding consumers to make well-informed choices about products and services. The prohibition codifies the AMR's enforcement practice against false promotion involving manipulated user reviews. For instance, a Shenzhen-based electronics company commissioned an information technology company to fabricate user reviews on multiple Q&A platforms by posing as consumers. The former was fined RMB 200,000 (circa USD 27,400), while the latter was fined RMB 1.5 million (circa USD 205,800) for organizing and assisting in false promotion.
• Interim Provisions on Network Anti-Unfair Competition. In recent years, numerous businesses have utilized cashback, red envelopes, and other incentives to entice consumers into providing positive reviews. Article 9(5) of the Provisions now stipulates that "inducing users to give specified positive reviews, likes, or targeted votes through cashback, red envelopes, coupons, etc." is a form of false commercial promotion and is prohibited.

At the provincial level, several local AMRs have also actively published guidelines for specific industries, which include:

• Cosmetics Industry Advertising Compliance Guidelinesjointly issued by Shanghai AMR and Shanghai Administration for Drug Supervision. These guidelines provide detailed guidance on compliance with cosmetic efficacy claims and the specific rules which apply to special groups such as children, pregnant women and lactating women. 
• Third-Party Assessment Compliance Guidelines by Jiangsu AMR. These guidelines address third-party assessments, common in China, conducted by entities without national inspection qualifications. These entities evaluate products based on their own assessments, test results, research data, or user experiences, and then publish the results to aid consumer decisions. While these assessments provide valuable information, they also carry the risk of leading to business defamation and false promotion. The guidelines outline key regulatory points for both third-party evaluators and the businesses that commission them.
• Guidelines for the Online Live Streaming Activity Advertising byHainan AMR. These guidelines clarify the compliance obligations and standards for live streaming marketing platforms, operators within the platforms and live streamers, and define the responsibilities of all parties. Additionally, the guidelines provide a list of prohibited and unsuitable goods and services for live streaming promotion.
• Guidelines for the Food Advertisingby Fujian AMR. These guidelines apply to the advertising of food (excluding therapeutic foods), health foods and foods intended for special medical purposes. They emphasize that advertisements should not encourage excessive eating or other forms of food waste, nor should they imply that food products have disease-preventing or therapeutic effects.

The above local guidelines are only applicable to the relevant provinces. That said, they consolidate rules dispersed across various laws and regulations, providing valuable guidance for advertisers regarding law enforcement agencies' interpretation and enforcement standards.

In 2024, the AMRs focused their enforcement efforts on addressing public concerns by concentrating on key areas such as medical services, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, health foods, finance and education. They launched special regulatory actions to oversee advertising in these sectors and have published 20 typical cases of illegal advertising. We will report on these separately.

Outlook for 2025

Under the 2025 National Advertising Regulation Work Points published by the SAMR, several amendments to existing regulations are proposed, including amendments to the Advertising Management Regulations, the Interim Measures for the Promotion and Administration of Charitable Advertisements, the Interim Measures for the Review and Administration of Advertisements for Drugs, Medical Devices, Health Foods, and Special Medical Purpose Formula Foods, and the Administration Measures for Medical Advertisements. These amendments are designed to modernize the regulatory framework, addressing emerging issues and challenges in the advertising sector.

We expect to see intensified government enforcement efforts to regulate advertising in areas concerning goods and services connected with people's wellbeing, ensuring stricter compliance and enforcement in key sectors such as medical services, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, health foods, finance and education.

These aspects highlight China's continued efforts to enhance legal regulations, compliance, and enforcement in the advertising field. Businesses need to have a grasp of the evolving legal landscape and enforcement priorities to remain compliant.