The Ministry of Culture and Tourism ("MCT") has recently enacted and issued the Interim Provisions on Administration of Online Tourism Business and Services (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") to seek public comments by November 10, 2019.
Major contents of the Draft for Comment touch upon the following aspects. The first is defining the scope of application and relevant subjects. The second is laying out the circumstances in which platforms shall be held jointly liable, and intensifying relevant requirements over platforms regarding qualification review, early warning and insurance, for instance, it is provided that "platform operators shall check and verify the qualification of business operators on their platforms and register their qualifications according to law" and that "a platform operator shall immediately activate the contingency plan, when it learns about any violation of the tourism contract". The third is setting forth detailed provisions on fake bookings, unreasonably low-price tours, price discrimination (the big-data-based practice of offering higher prices to regular customers), credit regulation, among other social hotspots. The fourth is incorporating provisions on damage attributed to tourists themselves. Meanwhile, the regulation stresses the obligation of online tourism business operators to rescue tourists when a force majeure event takes place or the damage caused by a third party arises, adding that they shall bear joint and several liability for any extra damage arising from their failure to come to the rescue.