China’s advertising industry issues code of conduct for live streaming e-commerce

China will introduce a code of conduct for its booming live-streaming e-commerce industry in the first step towards regulating a new marketing tool that has been widely adopted by offline merchants as a way to recover from lost sales due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The China Advertising Association (CAA) issued a notice last week recommending content censorship and real-name user registration for live-streamed shopping promotions.

Similar to conventional luxury and beauty brand ambassadors, live streamers endorse third party products and services for a fee. The CAA code of conduct, which will be introduced on July 1, requires live streamers to adhere to laws and ensure that information conveyed about the products is truthful. Statements that deceive or mislead consumers about products and services are prohibited.

Live-streamers are advised to cooperate with platforms to censor and manage their interactive sessions with users, according to the notice. Operators of live-streaming e-commerce sites must operate under the supervision of legal authorities and provide necessary data and information upon request.

The code of conduct is the first dedicated to the booming live-streaming shopping industry. Those in breach may be publicly criticised by the CAA and asked to rectify their behaviour. In cases where laws or government regulations are broken, the association will ask relevant authorities to investigate.

Earlier this month, another industry body, the Professional Committee of Media Shopping of China General Chamber of Commerce, also drafted a set of industry standards as well as guidelines for live-streaming shopping, outlining codes of conduct for product quality and practitioner qualifications.