The State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR") has recently issued the Announcement on Launching the Major Enforcement Action Against Unfair Competition Practices (the "Announcement").
It is decided in the Announcement that, from May to October 2018, a major enforcement action will be carried out nationwide to fight against unfair competition practices. Further, the Announcement expressly states that efforts will focus on investigating and combatting unfair competition behavior that infringes upon intellectual property rights, such as those causing confusion in the market or infringing on trade secrets, a move to strengthen protection of leading enterprises in an industry, reputed trademarks, influential trade names, and trade secrets of technology-intensive enterprises. In addition, the Announcement notes that the action will focus on the crackdown on commercial briberies in the pharmaceutical and education fields, and close attention will be paid to those industries and sectors that affect a wide range of aspects and are closely associated with the livelihood, including purchase and sales of drugs (medical devices). Moreover, the Announcement calls for efforts to eliminate false publicity in the internet sector, particularly the "false or misleading commercial advertisements of business operators for their products' property, functions, quality, sales performance, users feedback and honors they have received, for the purposes of cheating and misleading consumers", for example.