SAIC Issues the First Administrative Measures on Internet Advertising

On July 8, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) announced the Interim Measures for the Internet Advertising Administration, effective September 1, 2016.  These measures, based on the 2015 Advertising Law, are the first of its kind to fully regulate Internet advertising. Advertisers, publishers, and internet information service providers shall comply with the following rules:

    ensure that paid search advertising is clearly differentiable from natural search results and that all results are clearly marked (Consistent with CAC's regulations on Internet Search Services)
    pop up ads must be closable with a single click, and no ad links can be included in email without user consent
    Internet advertising publishers and operators must examine all relevant documents, check ad content, create filing systems and hire necessary staff to examine all content
    Internet Information service providers who are not involved in Internet advertising business activities but provide a service for online advertising should remove any ads that they know or should know are illegal

These new measures place more responsibility on Internet advertisers and create many liabilities for Internet advertising publishers and operators as well as media-side and advertising information exchange platforms. With the new measures in place starting in September, we expect to see search engines, e-commerce, social media, and other Internet media sites clearly label paid ads and email service providers reduce the amount of ad promotion links sent through emails.