The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Order of the President of the People’s Republic of China No.10 The Law of the People’s Republic of China Against Unfair Competition, adopted at the 3rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the President of the People’s Republic of China: Jiang Zemin September 2,1993 Law of the People’s Republic of China Against Unfair Competition ContentsChapter I General Provisions Chapter II Acts of Unfair Competition Chapter III Supervision and Inspection Chapter IV Legal Responsibility Chapter V Supplementary Provisions Chapter I General Provisions Article 1 This Law is formulated with a view to safeguarding the healthy development of socialist market economy, encouraging and protecting Article 2 A business operator shall, in his market transactions, follow the principles of voluntariness, equality, fairness, honesty and credibility “Unfair competition” mentioned in this Law refers to a business operator’s acts violating the provisions of this Law, infringing upon “A business operator” mentioned in this Law refers to a legal person or any other economic organization or individual engaged in commodities Article 3 People’s governments at various levels shall take measures to repress unfair competition acts and create favourable environment and Administrative departments for industry and commerce of the people’s governments at or above the county level shall exercise supervision Article 4 The State shall encourage, support and protect all organizations and individuals in the exercise of social supervision over unfair No State functionary may support or cover up unfair competition acts. Chapter II Acts of Unfair Competition Article 5 A business operator shall not harm his competitors in market transactions by resorting to any of the following unfair means: (1) counterfeiting a registered trademark of another person; (2) using for a commodity without authorization a unique name, package, or decoration of another’s famous commodity, or using a name, (3) using without authorization the name of another enterprise or person, thereby leading people to mistake their commodities for those (4) forging or counterfeiting authentication marks, famous-and-excellent-product marks or other product quality marks on their commodities, Article 6 A public utility enterprise or any other business operator occupying monopoly status according to law shall not restrict people to Article 7 Governments and their subordinate departments shall not abuse administrative powers to restrict people to purchasing commodities from Governments and their subordinate departments shall not abuse administrative powers to restrict commodities originated in other places Article 8 A business operator shall not resort to bribery, by offering money or goods or by any other means, in selling or purchasing commodities. A business operator may, in selling or purchasing commodities, expressly allow a discount to the other party and pay a commission Article 9 A business operator may not, by advertisement or any other means, make false or misleading publicity of their commodities as to their An advertisement agent may not act as agent for, or design, produce or release a false advertisement while he clearly knows or ought Article 10 A business operator shall not use any of the following means to infringe upon trade secrets: (1) obtaining an obligee’s trade secrets by stealing, luring, intimidation or any other unfair means; (2) disclosing, using or allowing another person to use the trade secrets obtained from the obligee by the means mentiond in the preceding (3) in violation of the agreement or against the obligee’s demand for keeping trade secrets, disclosing, using or allowing another person Obtaining, using or disclosing another’s trade secrets by a third party who clearly knows or ought to know that the case falls under “Trade secrets” mentioned in this Article refer to any technology information or business operation information which is unknown to Article 11 A business operator shall not, for the purpose of pushing out their competitors, sell their commodities at prices lower than costs. Any of the following shall not be deemed as an unfair competition act: (1) selling perishables or live commodities; (2) disposing of commodities near expiration of their validity duration or those kept too long in stock; (3) seasonal sales; or (4) selling commodities at a reduced price for the purpose of clearing off debts, change of business or suspension of operation. Article 12 A business operator may not, against the will of purchasers, conduct tie-in sale of commodities or attach any other unreasonable conditions Article 13 A business operator shall not engage in any of the following lottery-attached sale activities: (1) lottery-attached sale conducted by such deceptive means as falsely declaring prize or intentionally making a person designated inside (2) lottery-attached sale employed as a means to sell goods of low quality at a high price; or (3) lottery-attached sale in form of lottery-drawing with the highest prize exceeding 5,000 yuan. Article 14 A business operator shall not fabricate or spread false information to injure his competitors’ commercial credit or the reputation Article 15 Bidders shall not act in collusion with each other so as to force up or down the bidding prices. Bidders and tender-inviters shall not collude with each other so as to push out their competitors from fair competition. Chapter III Supervision and Inspection Article 16 Supervision and inspection departments at or above the county level may carry out supervision over and inspection of unfair competition Article 17 Supervision and inspection departments shall, in supervising and inspecting unfair competition acts, have the right to exercise the (1) to interrogate the business operators under inspection, interested persons, or witnesses in accordance with the prescribed procedures, (2) to inquire about and duplicate the agreements, account books, invoices, documents, records, business letters and telegrammed or other (3) to inspect the property involved in the unfair competition acts under Article 5 of this Law; and, when necessary, to order the business Article 18 Functionaries of supervision and inspection departments shall, when supervising and inspecting unfair competition acts, produce their Article 19 Business operators under inspection, interested persons and witnesses shall truthfully provide relevant materials or particulars when Chapter IV Legal Responsibility Article 20 A business operator who violates the provisions of this Law and thus causes damage to the infringed business operators, shall bear A business operator whose lawful rights and interests are infringed upon by unfair competition acts may bring a suit in a people’s Article 21 A business operator who counterfeits another’s registered trademark, uses without authorization the name of another enterprise or In case a business operator uses for a commodity without authorization the name, package or decoration of a famous commodity or the Article 22 A business operator, who resorts to bribery by offering money or goods or by any other means in selling or purchasing commodities Article 23 In case a public utility enterprise or any other business operator occupying monopoly status according to law restricts people to Article 24 In case a business operator makes false and misleading publicity of his commodities by advertisement or any other means, the supervision In case an advertisement agent acts as agent for, or designs, produces or releases a false advertisement though the agent clearly Article 25 In case a business operator violates the provisions of Article 10 of this Law and infringes upon trade secrets, the supervision and Article 26 In case a business operator engages in lottery-attached sale in violation of the provisions of Article 13 of this Law, the supervision Article 27 Where bidders act in collusion with each other to force up or down the bidding price, or a bidder colludes with a tender-inviter for Article 28 In case a business operator acts in violation of the order of stopping the sale or forbidding the transfer,concealment or destruction Article 29 In case a party is not satisfied with the punishment decision made by the supervision and inspection department, it may apply for Article 30 Where a government or its subordinate departments, in violation of the provisions of Article 7 of this Law, restrict people to purchasing Article 31 Where a state functionary engaged in supervision over and inspection of unfair competition acts abuses his power or neglects his duty, Article 32 Where a state functionary engaged in supervision over and inspection of unfair competition acts practices favoritism or irregularities Chapter V Supplementary Provisions Article 33 This Law shall enter into force as of December 1,1993. |
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress
1993-09-02