New pitch

The first revision of the Advertising Law in more than 20 years turns a fresh page in the country’s regulatory landscape for marketing. Philip Qu and Justina Zhang caution advertisers to consider compliance before penning new promotions

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress issued an amendment of the Advertising Law on 24 April, the first time the general advertising law has been amended since being issued in 1994. The new law, which takes effect on 1 September, goes a long way towards modernizing a somewhat outdated regulatory regime.

The primary regulatory framework for advertisements consists of the Advertising Law and a variety of media-, industry- and subject-specific regulations. These regulations include, for example, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television’s (SARFT) Measures for the Administration of Broadcasting Television and Radio Advertisements and joint legislation by multiple ministries to combat false and illegal medical service ads, the Standards for the Examination and Publication of Pharmaceutical Advertisements.

The Advertising Law, however, is the lynchpin legislation, and its recent revision sets the tone for what appears to be a revitalization of the entire regulatory landscape for advertisements. Over the past 20 years, there have been several attempts to comprehensively revise the Advertising Law, but for a variety of reasons – including a complicated legislative process and an inability to keep up administratively with this rapidly developing industry – these efforts were replaced by administrative regulations at the ministerial level instead.

Philip Qu is the founding partner and Justina Zhang is a partner of TransAsia Lawyers