It’s almost five years after the Advertising Law, which is said to be the “strictest ever” in history, came into effect on September 1, 2015. Nevertheless, the number of cases involving illegal advertising kept on increasing and the amount of fines surged to new highs again and again. Illegal advertising is still the No.1 reason for enforcement actions by government authorities against the involved enterprises. In this situation, the September W&B China Law Salon invited Mr. Frank Jin, W&B lawyer who had accumulate rich experience in dealing with advertising compliance, to give the lecture entitled “New Changes in Compliance under the Advertising Law” on the afternoon of September 4.

Mr. Jin first summarized and analyzed new trends in regulation and enforcement of advertising activities. Specifically, he held that judging from the present law enforcement practice, the Administrations for Market Regulation were taking the initiative in monitoring advertising activities, supplemented by accepting reports and complaints; the main battlefield of advertising monitoring had been shifted from offline to online model, and said monitoring mainly relied on the advertising monitoring center that had become a significant resource of clues for advertising law enforcement by the authorities. Then Mr. Jin listed and elaborated on several typical cases reflecting typical target products for enforcement actions and shared his views on the new trends in the advertising regulation and enforcement.

Secondly, Mr. Jin introduced new legislative developments in the area of advertising law – legislation was keeping pace with the advancing high-tech and the stronger law enforcement actions. Mr. Jin listed the new legislations since 2018, e.g. the amendment to the Advertising Law, the promulgation of the E-commerce Law, the Guiding Opinions of the State Administration for Market Regulation on Strengthening Regulation of Network Broadcast Marketing Activities (Draft for Comment), and the Regulation for Administration of Advertising newly revised by Zhejiang Province in 2020, which was commented by Mr. Jin to be the epitome in advertising law enforcement in recent years.

Following that Mr. Jin gave a look back into the old legislations. He ordered the basic principles for advertising compliance and led the attendees to the two most dangerous points that might trigger penalties for illegal advertising – absolute terms and false advertising. Through some typical cases, he introduced the patterns of absolute terms and how these terms should be regulated. When talking about false advertising, he also cited examples to explain the constitutive elements – the content being illegal and the result being misleading.

After elaborating on the key points in the 2015 Advertising Law, Mr. Jin finally mentioned some emerging issues in the area of advertising compliance, e.g. marketing of products by network broadcasters and advertisements published via the Internet, etc. By using some examples, he explained these issues in simple language and in a readily understood way.