The Municipal Administration of Supervision has issued new regulations. How does the Internet anti-unfair competition affect wine e-commerce?

At present, the State Administration for Market Regulation has published the full text of the "Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition on the Internet" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which will come into effect on September 1, 2024. It is understood that this regulation regulates unfair competition in the network field, and is a refinement and supplement to the current "Anti-Unfair Competition Law" and judicial interpretation.

As we all know, the current network platform has become an important channel for liquor sales. According to the data disclosed by the mainstream enterprises of liquor listed companies, the total sales revenue of 18 listed liquor companies last year was 33.24 billion yuan, accounting for 8.36 of the total sales revenue of listed companies.
After all, what impact will this new regulation have on the liquor industry, especially what important impact will it have on e-commerce channels?

01
What is unfair competition on the Internet? This time it is clear.

The regulations announced this time, especially based on the complex and changeable characteristics of online competition behavior, comprehensively sort out and list online unfair competition behaviors, classify and refine online unfair competition behaviors, clarify identification standards, and further strengthen platform responsibilities. The supervision of platform enterprises puts forward new requirements.
Among them, Article 7 of the new regulations states that business operators shall not use the Internet to commit the following confusing acts, causing people to mistakenly believe that they are other people's goods (the goods referred to in these regulations include services) or have a specific connection with others:

◆ Unauthorized use of the same or similar logo as the main part of the domain name, website name, webpage, etc. that has a certain influence with others;

◆ Unauthorized use of other people's influential commodity names, enterprise names (including abbreviations, font names, etc.), social organization names (including abbreviations, etc.), names (including pseudonyms, stage names, translated names, etc.) as the main part of the domain name and other network business activities;

◆ Unauthorized use of the same or similar logos such as page design, name, icon, shape, etc. of application software, online stores, clients, applets, public numbers, game interfaces, etc. that have certain influence with others;

◆ Unauthorized use of other people have a certain influence on the network name, network symbols, network abbreviations and other signs;

The production and sale of goods that are sufficient to be mistaken for the goods of others or have a specific connection with others;

◆ By providing convenient conditions such as network business premises, and other operators to carry out confusion together;

◆ Other confusing acts that use the Internet to cause people to mistake them for other people's goods or have a specific connection with others.

Unauthorized setting of a commercial logo that has a certain influence on others as a search keyword is sufficient to cause people to mistake it for another person's goods or has a specific connection with others is a confusing act as stipulated in the preceding paragraph.
Article 8 stipulates that business operators shall not use the following methods to make false or misleading commercial propaganda on the main body of commodity production and operation and the performance, function, quality, source, previous honors, qualifications, etc., to deceive or mislead consumers Or the relevant public:

◆ Display, demonstrate, explain, explain, recommend or text mark through websites, clients, applets, public numbers, etc;

◆ Implement commercial marketing activities through live broadcast, platform recommend, network copy, etc;

◆ Implement commercial marketing activities through hot search, hot review, hot turn, list, etc;

Other false or misleading commercial propaganda.

Business operators shall not help other business operators to carry out the false or misleading commercial publicity acts of the preceding paragraph.
At the same time, it also belongs to unfair competition to brush orders and speculate letters, return of favorable comments, traffic hijacking, malicious interference, malicious incompatibility, reverse brush orders, illegal data acquisition, discriminatory treatment, etc. In addition, the new regulations also set up a bottom-up clause to deal with new types of unfair competition and new problems that may be encountered in the future.

02
How will the new rules affect alcohol e-commerce?

So what is the impact of this new regulation on the industry, especially the liquor e-commerce:
First, for merchants/brands, not only can they not rub against well-known brands, fictitious honors, qualifications, etc., but it is also illegal to carry out the above activities through a third party.
In addition, because the "Regulations" added the "unauthorized use of other people's network name, network symbol, network abbreviation and other signs that have a certain influence" in the network confusion behavior, this also means that the industry once common theme party, drainage party and other behaviors have also been included in the scope of supervision.
At the same time, the new regulations also add the standard of "implementing commercial marketing activities through hot search, hot review, hot transfer, list and other ways" to deal with the irregular bidding and push marketing mode, which puts forward higher requirements for brand parties to carry out event marketing.
Second, for the platform side, considering that a large part of today's new network unfair competition behavior is that operators use data, algorithms and other technical means to influence user choices or other means to implement traffic hijacking, interference, malicious incompatibility and other behaviors, which hinder or destroy the normal operation of network products or services legally provided by other operators.
Therefore, the regulations, in combination with China's practice, list the interception, closure, uninstallation, operation or implementation of search power reduction, reverse order brushing, malicious incompatibility, etc. of network products provided legally by other operators without the consent of other operators, against the will and choice of users, increasing the complexity of operation, undermining the consistency of use, interfering with other operators' illegal network competition.
On the whole, the new regulations released this time not only make targeted regulations on e-commerce platforms, but also bring the company's own websites, official accounts, and small programs into the scope of supervision.
As we all know, the liquor industry has been plagued by improper and even illegal acts such as "touching porcelain", "hitchhiking" and "hot". According to the intellectual property report of China's liquor industry released by China Liquor Industry Association in 2023, 86.96% of enterprises have encountered intellectual property infringement. Not long ago, the "Kobe wine industry" that made a lot of noise is a typical phenomenon of "near famous brands", "hitchhiking" and "hot.
Nowadays, with the promulgation of the "Interim Regulations on Anti-Unfair Competition on the Internet", not only these behaviors will be regulated, but those companies that are easy to be rubbed will also obtain new legal weapons, which is undoubtedly of great significance for maintaining the healthy development of the industry.

Wen | Yue Zhizhong