New Advertising Law in China: regulation of online Marketing

Did you know that in 2024 alone, China’s market regulators issued fines totaling over 1.2 billion RMB for advertising law violations, with international brands increasingly in the spotlight. If you’re running marketing campaigns targeting Chinese consumers, whether through WeChat, Douyin, or Weibo, the rules are stricter than most Western marketers expect. Getting them wrong doesn’t just cost money. It can get your account suspended, your campaign pulled, and your brand reputation damaged in a market where trust is everything. Here’s what you need to know to stay compliant and keep marketing effectively in 2026.

China’s Advertising Law: The Core Framework

China’s Advertising Law (广告法) was originally passed in 1994 and has been updated several times since. The most significant revision came in 2015, introducing strict rules on absolute superlatives (you cannot call your product “the best,” “number one,” or “the most” without evidence), and again in 2021 with tighter rules on children’s advertising and health claims.

But in 2024 and into 2025, three additional regulatory bodies added their own layers: the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), and the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA). These agencies now overlap in jurisdiction for online advertising, and the rules they enforce cover everything from influencer disclosures to data collection practices in ad targeting.

For international brands, the most important principle is this: Chinese advertising law applies to any content that targets Chinese consumers, regardless of where you’re based. If your WeChat Official Account is pushing promotional content to users in China, you are subject to Chinese advertising regulations.

2024-2025 Regulatory Updates You Must Know

Several significant updates came into force between 2024 and 2025 that directly affect international brands:

Stricter rules on performance claims: Any claim about a product’s effectiveness (weight loss, health benefits, investment returns, hotel star comparisons) must now be backed by approved documentation submitted to SAMR. This applies to both paid ads and organic promotional content. Vague claims like “dramatically improves your skin” or “China’s favorite hotel brand” are explicitly prohibited.

KOL and influencer disclosure rules tightened: Since January 2025, any paid collaboration between a brand and an influencer must be clearly labeled as advertising (广告) in the post. The label must be visible and placed at the beginning of the content, not buried in a caption. Platforms like Weibo and Douyin now have automated detection for undisclosed paid content, and both the brand and the influencer can be fined.

CAC rules on algorithmic recommendations: New CAC rules that took effect in 2024 require platforms to give users control over algorithm-based ad targeting. For brands, this means that your paid ad reach may be slightly lower than before, as some users opt out of personalized recommendations. It also means that creative quality matters more: if users actively engage with your ads, the algorithm continues to show them. If users ignore or dismiss them, reach drops quickly.

Cross-border data restrictions on ad targeting: If your campaign uses data collected outside China to target users inside China (for example, a retargeting pixel on a global website), you now need explicit consent and in some cases PIPL compliance documentation. This is a significant change for international hospitality brands running global retargeting campaigns that include Chinese users. For a full understanding of data compliance requirements, you can also check our Baidu SEO Guide, which covers how data rules affect search marketing in China.

What International Brands Most Commonly Get Wrong

Based on cases reviewed in 2024-2025, international brands tend to make the same categories of mistakes:

Translating Western campaigns without legal review: A campaign that is perfectly legal in France, the UK, or the US may violate Chinese law. “Award-winning” claims, comparison advertising, before-and-after visuals for health products, and celebrity endorsements all have specific rules in China that differ from Western standards.

Not labeling promotional content from KOLs: Many brands assume that if the influencer is posting voluntarily or receives product samples rather than cash, disclosure isn’t needed. Under the 2025 rules, any material benefit (including free stays, complimentary products, or event invitations) triggers disclosure requirements.

Using banned keywords in ad copy: Certain words are simply prohibited in Chinese advertising copy. You should focus on: three categories in particular. First, superlatives (最, 第一, 顶级). Second, absolute health or safety guarantees. Third, government or official endorsement language unless you actually have it. Chinese ad platforms have automated filters that can reject or flag ads containing these terms.

How to Stay Compliant While Still Marketing Effectively

Compliance doesn’t mean bland marketing. Here’s the practical approach:

Work with a local Chinese agency or legal partner who reviews content before it goes live. This is not optional for brands spending significant budget in China. A 30-minute legal review can prevent a campaign pull that costs you thousands and damages your platform standing.

Build a pre-approved claims library: a document listing exactly which performance claims your brand is allowed to make in China, with supporting documentation filed with SAMR. Update it annually. Share it with everyone creating Chinese content for your brand.

Make disclosure part of your KOL brief from the start. Every influencer contract should include a clause requiring proper labeling. This protects you and the influencer, and it’s now standard practice among major brands operating in China. You can learn more about building compliant campaigns through our our China advertising services.

Key Trends to Know in 2026

• SAMR enforcement expanding to smaller brands: Regulators are no longer just targeting large domestic players. International brands of all sizes, including boutique operators and niche retailers, are now receiving compliance notices.
• AI-generated content entering the regulatory scope: New 2025 CAC guidelines on AI-generated content require disclosure when AI tools are used to produce advertising material. This is still evolving but expect stricter rules by end of 2026.
• Live streaming commerce under heavier scrutiny: Hosts selling products via Douyin or Taobao Live must now disclose return policies, product certifications, and any paid brand relationships in real time during the stream.
• Green and sustainability claims getting fact-checked: “Eco-friendly” and “sustainable” labels are now subject to the same evidentiary standards as health claims. Vague sustainability marketing is increasingly being flagged.
• Influencer accountability rising: Under 2025 rules, influencers with over 500,000 followers are now classified as advertising publishers and face the same compliance requirements as media companies.
• Regional variation in enforcement: Shanghai and Beijing regulators are significantly more active than those in smaller cities. If your brand operates in tier-1 cities, your compliance bar needs to be higher.
• Platform self-regulation increasing: WeChat, Douyin and Weibo which have 700 million users is perfect for tourism, are all investing in automated compliance tools that flag potentially non-compliant content before it goes live.

What Our Expert Says

“The brands that get into trouble aren’t usually trying to break the rules. They’re applying Western marketing logic to a Chinese regulatory environment that works very differently. The most common mistake I see is a brand translating a campaign that won a European award, running it in China without local review, and then being surprised when it gets pulled. The fix is simple: before any campaign goes live in China, have someone who knows Chinese advertising law read every word of every piece of content. The cost of that review is tiny compared to the cost of a violation. In 2026 the regulators have more tools and more appetite to act than ever before.”

Philip Chen, GMA Senior Consultant.

How Grand Meridian Hotels Got Back on Track After a Costly Mistake

James Harrington had been working in hospitality marketing for eighteen years when he took the regional marketing director role at Grand Meridian Hotels, a mid-to-upper tier European hotel group with twelve properties in France, Germany, and the UK. By 2023, the group had identified Chinese travelers as a priority growth segment. Outbound Chinese tourism was recovering fast, and Grand Meridian’s Paris and Munich properties were already appearing in Chinese travel forums. The opportunity seemed clear.

James’s team built a WeChat Official Account in-house and launched it in Q3 2023. The content was well-produced: high quality hotel photography, room promotions, and package deals. The campaign’s headline claim, repeated across multiple posts, was “Voted Europe’s Top Value Luxury Hotel Group by Chinese Travelers 2022.” It was based on a real survey, but that survey had been conducted by a small European travel publication, not by an accredited Chinese research body, and it had never been submitted to any Chinese regulatory authority.

In February 2024, WeChat’s compliance team flagged the account. Grand Meridian received a formal notice from the platform: the “voted best” claim violated SAMR rules on unsubstantiated performance claims. Three posts were taken down immediately. The WeChat account was placed under a 30-day posting restriction. During those 30 days, Grand Meridian lost their most active booking season: Chinese New Year and the weeks leading up to it.

“We were completely blindsided,” James said. “We had run that same claim on our UK social media for two years without any issue. We genuinely didn’t understand that China had a completely different set of rules.”

The 30-day restriction cost Grand Meridian an estimated 40,000 euros in lost bookings from Chinese travelers who reached out during that period and found an inactive account. The reputational damage was harder to quantify but real: several travel agencies in Shanghai and Beijing that had been considering featuring Grand Meridian in their packages put the partnership on hold pending clarification.

James brought in a China-focused agency immediately after the restriction lifted. The first thing they did was a full compliance audit of every piece of content Grand Meridian had on WeChat, Weibo, and their Chinese-language website. Seven more potential violations were identified and corrected before they could be flagged. Then they built a new content strategy from scratch: no performance comparisons, no superlatives, no unsubstantiated claims. Instead, the campaign focused on experiential content: what it actually feels like to stay at a Grand Meridian property, real guest stories (clearly labeled as such), and specific destination highlights like restaurant recommendations and local experiences.

They also set up a formal claims review process: a simple checklist that every piece of Chinese marketing content had to pass before publication. It took about 15 minutes per piece. James called it “the best 15 minutes we spend every week.”

By September 2024, six months after the reset, Grand Meridian’s WeChat account had more followers than before the violation, and engagement rates were higher. Chinese travelers responded well to the more authentic, story-driven content. Three Shanghai-based travel agencies signed partnership agreements. Bookings from Chinese travelers for the Paris property were up 55% year-on-year in Q4 2024.

“The violation was painful,” James said. “But in a strange way, it forced us to build something better. We were trying to use the same marketing playbook we use in Europe, and it wasn’t right for China anyway. The compliance reset made us think about what Chinese travelers actually want to hear, and that turned out to be a much better strategy than shouting about awards.”

How GMA Can Help You

Staying compliant while running effective campaigns in China requires local knowledge and ongoing attention. Here is what GMA does for brands in this area:

• Pre-campaign compliance audit: We review all your existing Chinese marketing content and identify claims, language, and disclosures that need to be corrected before your next campaign launches.
• Approved claims library creation: We work with you to build a documented library of claims you are permitted to make in China, with supporting materials filed correctly with SAMR where needed.
• KOL contract compliance: We include mandatory disclosure clauses in all influencer agreements we manage, protecting your brand from inadvertent violations by content creators.
• WeChat and Douyin campaign management with built-in compliance review: Every post we create for your brand passes a compliance check before it goes live. You approve the content, we handle the legal layer.
• Ongoing regulatory monitoring: Chinese advertising rules change frequently. We track updates from SAMR, CAC, and platform-level policies and notify you when changes affect your marketing approach.
• Crisis response support: If your account is flagged or a campaign is pulled, we handle the platform communication, identify the issue, and help you get back to active status as quickly as possible.

Discover what we do at GMA’s advertising services in China.

About GMA

GMA (Greater Marketing Agency) has been helping international brands reach Chinese consumers since 2012. Over 500 brands have worked with us, across hospitality, fashion, food and beverage, technology, and tourism. We have teams in Shanghai and Paris who manage Chinese digital campaigns on a daily basis and track regulatory changes as they happen. Our compliance process has protected dozens of clients from costly violations. If you’re serious about China marketing, working with people who know the rules is not optional. We do.

About the author: Claire is a Digital Marketing Specialist at GMA. She has spent 6 years working with hotels, brands and destinations to attract Chinese travelers and consumers. She writes about what actually works in the Chinese market in 2026. Want to know more? Visit our services page.

Useful Chinese Sources

QuestMobile (questmobile.com.cn) tracks mobile user behavior across Chinese apps and platforms, including ad engagement rates, compliance-related account suspensions, and platform usage shifts. Their data on WeChat and Douyin advertising performance is widely cited by China marketing professionals.

Analysys (易观分析) covers China’s digital economy with detailed reports on regulatory changes affecting e-commerce, social media, and digital advertising. Their annual China digital advertising compliance review is a key reference for brands navigating the evolving regulatory environment.