- China’s first dedicated livestream e-commerce regulation — SAMR and CAC Order No. 117, published on 18 December 2025 — takes effect on 1 February 2026.
中国首部直播电商领域专门规章——市场监管总局、国家网信办令第117号，2025年12月18日公布——自2026年2月1日起施行。- The Measures divide the industry into four duty-bearers: platform operators, livestream room operators, livestream marketing personnel and marketing personnel service agencies (MCNs).
《办法》将行业划分为四类主体：直播电商平台经营者、直播间运营者、直播营销人员、直播营销人员服务机构（MCN机构）。- Whoever actually operates someone else’s livestream room must perform the room operator’s obligations, so agency operators cannot hide behind “the account is not mine”.
实际运营他人直播间的，也应当履行直播间运营者的相应义务，代运营服务商无法以”账号不是我的”免责。- Where AI-generated human images or videos are used to sell, the room must continuously disclose to consumers that the persona is technology-generated.
使用人工智能等技术生成的人物图像、视频从事直播电商活动的，直播间应当持续向消费者提示该形象由技术生成。- Traffic itself becomes an enforcement tool: non-compliant rooms can be throttled or shut down, supported by SAMR–CAC joint supervision and three penetrating-regulation initiatives.
流量本身成为执法工具：违规直播间可被限流甚至关停，并由市场监管与网信部门联动协作及三项穿透式监管举措支撑。- Enforcement is already heavy: SAMR fined Chengdu Kuaigou Technology, the Kuaishou e-commerce operating entity, RMB 26.6929 million for seven categories of violations.
执法力度已然可观：市场监管总局对快手电商平台运营主体成都快购科技有限公司七项违法行为罚没2669.29万元。- Order No. 116, the Online Trading Platform Rules Measures, takes effect the same day and curbs “choose one of two”, unreasonable fees, arbitrary “fines” and differential pricing.
同日公布的令第116号《网络交易平台规则监督管理办法》同步施行，规制”二选一”、不合理收费、不合理”罚款”与差别定价。- Foreign brands should map their own role among the four categories, pre-clear product and advertising qualifications, label digital hosts and retain replays and scripts.
外资品牌应先厘清自身在四类主体中的定位，前置商品资质与广告审查，标识数字人主播，并留存直播回放与脚本。
China’s Livestream E-commerce Supervision Measures in Force from 1 February 2026: Four Categories of Duty-Bearers, AI Virtual Host Labelling and Traffic-Based Enforcement | 《直播电商监督管理办法》2026年2月1日施行：四类主体责任、AI数字人主播标识与流量监管
Overview
On 18 December 2025 SAMR and CAC jointly promulgated the *Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Livestream E-commerce* as Order No. 117, effective 1 February 2026; Order No. 116, the *Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Trading Platform Rules*, was issued and takes effect the same day. Order No. 117 is China’s first dedicated livestream-e-commerce regulation, and livestream selling is the largest first-buyer channel for many foreign brands entering China.
What the Measures Cover
Made under the E-commerce Law, the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law and the Cybersecurity Law, the Measures apply (Article 2) within the PRC to livestream e-commerce and its supervision by market regulation and cyberspace administration departments. “Livestream e-commerce” means selling goods or services through websites, applications and similar channels by video or audio streaming or a combination, including a brand’s own mini-programme. Article 3 requires voluntariness, equality, fairness, good faith, law compliance, commercial ethics, fair competition and supervision acceptance; Articles 4 and 5 set innovation-with-bottom-lines and online/offline parity, and encourage first-enquiry responsibility, advance compensation, online dispute resolution, self-discipline and consumer-organisation supervision.
Four Categories of Duty-Bearers
- Platform operators — entities providing online business premises, transaction matching, information publication and similar services that let two or more parties transact independently.
- Livestream room operators — parties registering accounts on a platform, or opening rooms through self-built websites or other network services. A party actually operating another’s room shall likewise perform the corresponding room-operator obligations.
- Livestream marketing personnel — natural persons directly promoting goods or services to the public: the hosts.
- Livestream marketing personnel service agencies — organisations providing planning, operations, talent management, training and technical support to hosts: the MCNs.
Much of the foreign-brand market runs through agency operators (代运营); the agency actually running a room bears room-operator obligations regardless of account ownership.
Platform, Room and Host Obligations
Platforms must verify qualifications, report information, train, manage by grade and category, evaluate credit, dispose of unlawful conduct, control dynamically, disclose information and protect consumers, vetting room operators, MCNs and hosts. Room operators must maintain review, disclosure and identity-verification systems and avoid false promotion; hosts must introduce goods truthfully, accurately and comprehensively.
AI-Generated Virtual Hosts
Where AI-generated human images or videos are used, the room must continuously prompt consumers that the image is technology-generated — not merely a splash screen or a buried line; the duty sits with the room operator, including an agency actually operating it. Round-the-clock digital-human streaming is allowed; presenting a synthetic persona as human is not, and truthfulness duties apply to the avatar’s script. The Measures also set twelve categories of prohibited conduct — false promotion, traffic/transaction fabrication, commercial disparagement — as one sector-specific basis for action.
Traffic Supervision and Penetrating Regulation
Traffic is a regulatory instrument: the Measures strengthen traffic supervision and explore traffic-based supervision of infringing entities, letting non-compliant rooms be throttled or shut down, backed by a SAMR–CAC coordination mechanism. SAMR advances three penetrating-regulation initiatives — a livestream e-commerce entity database (直播电商主体库) prioritising room operators for data connection; a product-code pilot (“platforms display, consumers scan, regulators use”); and a monitoring system for cross-monitoring high-risk activity with penetrating-supervision pilots in active platform economies.
Enforcement in Practice
SAMR penalised Chengdu Kuaigou Technology Co., Ltd. (成都快购科技有限公司), operator of the Kuaishou e-commerce platform, with fines and confiscations of RMB 26.6929 million — precisely RMB 26,692,904.62 — in a case opened September 2025 and decided December 2025. Seven violations were found: failure to continuously disclose credential information, service agreements and transaction rules (E-commerce Law Articles 15, 33); unreasonable fees and punitive non-fixed liquidated damages charged to platform businesses (Article 35); failure of safety guarantee obligations (Article 38); failure to act on IP infringement (Articles 42, 45); inadequate advertising review for drugs, medical devices, food, health food and veterinary drugs, plus efficacy guarantees, efficacy comparisons and inducement to purchase (Advertising Law Articles 9, 16, 46); a “sales data only increases and never decreases” display function helping merchants and hosts fabricate transaction value and volume (Anti-Unfair Competition Law (2019 revision) Article 8); and Wildlife Protection Law Article 33, with penalties resting on the E-commerce Law, the Advertising Law, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law (2019 revision), the Wildlife Protection Law and the Administrative Penalty Law.
Room-level cases match. A Sihui, Guangdong jewellery shop staged a scripted “north versus south price-cutting contest” and a “foreign jade merchant in urgent need of a sale” and claimed therapeutic effects for jade: RMB 500,000, under Articles 8(1), 9(1) and 34 of the Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition Online with Articles 8(1) and 20(1) of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law (2019 revision). A Yangpu, Shanghai health-technology company claiming in private-domain livestreams that health food treats disease: RMB 350,000. A Tongliao, Inner Mongolia media company fabricating transaction value by order brushing: RMB 400,000, under Articles 9(1)(2) and 34 of the Interim Provisions and Article 25(1) of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. Since 2025 SAMR has published four batches totalling 30 typical cases and a fifth. Scripted dramatisation is false promotion.
The Companion Platform Rules Measures
Order No. 116 bars platforms from using rules to restrict businesses’ independent operation, charge unreasonable fees, impose unreasonable “fines” or cut membership rights — covering “choose one of two”, fee-without-service, forced below-cost dumping and forced paid promotions — and from restricting free goods choice, complaint rights, or “big data price discrimination”. Rules or links must be continuously displayed with charges and dispute resolution highlighted; negative measures need disclosed reasons, basis and an appeal channel; membership changes need pre-renewal notice.
A Compliance Checklist for Foreign Brands
- Map your role. Your own room makes you a room operator; a signed host is livestream marketing personnel; an MCN is a separate duty-bearer; an agency actually operating the room carries room-operator obligations whoever owns the account. Put the allocation and matching indemnities into contracts.
- Pre-clear products and advertising. Drugs, medical devices, food and health food, veterinary drugs, cosmetics and imported food labelling carry sector-specific review and claim limits. Fix the claim set before the script.
- Disclose cross-border retail import status where that model is used; see our No. 83.
- Label digital hosts persistently, building the prompt into the room template.
- Ban order brushing and display manipulation in agency and MCN contracts.
- Stand up first-enquiry responsibility and advance compensation.
- Retain replays, scripts, qualification files and approval trails.
- Audit the platform agreement against Order No. 116 and use the new appeal rights.
Related Reading
See our overview of routes into the Chinese e-commerce market (No. 43), the cross-border e-commerce retail import guide (No. 83), the note on expanded opening of value-added telecom services (No. 86) and the cross-border e-commerce export overseas warehouse guide (No. 93).
《直播电商监督管理办法》2026年2月1日施行：四类主体责任、AI数字人主播标识与流量监管
概述
2025年12月18日，国家市场监督管理总局（市场监管总局）与中央网络安全和信息化委员会办公室（国家网信办）联合公布《直播电商监督管理办法》，即第117号令，自2026年2月1日起施行；同日公布、同日施行的还有第116号令《网络交易平台规则监督管理办法》。第117号令是我国直播电商领域首部专门规章，结束了该行业长期依赖并非为直播间设计的通用规则的局面。对众多进入中国市场的外资消费品牌而言，直播带货正是获取首批消费者的最大渠道。
适用范围与基本原则
《办法》依据电子商务法、消费者权益保护法和网络安全法制订，第二条明确适用于中华人民共和国境内的直播电商活动，以及市场监管、网信部门在各自职责范围内的监督管理。”直播电商”指通过互联网站、应用程序等网络服务，以视频、音频直播或二者结合方式销售商品或提供服务；纯音频、音视频结合的直播均包含在内，品牌以自有小程序开播亦在监管范围内。
第三条要求自愿、平等、公平、诚信，遵守法律法规、商业道德、公序良俗，公平竞争并接受政府与社会监督；第四条确立鼓励创新、守住底线、线上线下一体化监管的理念；第五条鼓励首问负责、先行赔偿、在线争议解决、行业自律与消费者组织监督。
四类主体责任
- 平台经营者——提供网络经营场所、交易撮合、信息发布等服务的法人或非法人组织，供多方独立交易。
- 直播间运营者——在平台注册账号，或通过自建网站、其他网络服务开设直播间的自然人、法人或非法人组织。实际运营他人直播间的，亦应履行相应的直播间运营者义务。
- 直播营销人员——直接面向公众营销商品或服务的自然人，即主播。
- 直播营销人员服务机构——为主播提供策划、运营、经纪、培训、技术支持的机构，即MCN机构。
外资品牌市场多经代运营开展。实际运营直播间的服务商，应独立承担直播间运营者义务；外包并不转移品牌风险，服务商亦不得以”账号非己方所有”推卸责任。厘清自身在四类主体中的定位，是合规的第一步。
平台、直播间与主播义务
平台应履行资质核验、信息报送、培训、分级分类管理、信用评价、违法行为处置、动态管控、信息公示、消费者保护、投诉机制等，并真实身份认证和审核直播间运营者、MCN与主播，依规定报送数据、协助维权、建立黑名单。信用评价与动态管控会将品牌合规记录转化为审核时效、类目权限与流量分配。
直播间运营者应建立商品和服务信息发布审核、信息公示、身份核验等机制，不得虚假或引人误解的商业宣传；主播应真实、准确、全面介绍商品或服务，不得欺骗、误导。遗漏关键限制或折扣条件，即便未说假话，亦可能构成违规。”全面”要求很高，主播话术的每一处省略都可能触发责任。
AI生成的数字人主播
使用人工智能等技术生成的人物图像、视频从事直播电商的，直播间应持续向消费者提示该形象由技术生成——而非仅在开场闪屏或描述中埋设一行；中途进入的消费者亦应看到。该义务归于直播间，由直播间运营者（含实际运营的服务商）承担，而非技术供应商。
全天候数字人直播仍被允许；但将合成形象呈现为真实人物则不被允许，主播话术同样受真实义务约束。《办法》还划出十二类禁止行为红线——虚假宣传、流量与交易造假、商业诋毁等，统合为专门的执法依据。
流量监管与穿透式监管
流量本身成为监管工具：《办法》强化流量监管、探索对侵权主体的基于流量的监管，违规直播间可被限流乃至关停，并由市场监管与网信部门联动机制支撑。在直播场景里，可见度是最稀缺的资源，限流比罚款来得更快。
市场监管总局推进三项穿透式监管举措：以直播间运营者为重点对接平台的直播电商主体库（直播电商主体库）；”平台展示码、消费者扫码、监管用码”的产品码赋码核验试点；对高风险行为交叉监测的监测系统，并在平台经济活跃地区开展穿透式监管试点。因此应假定提供给平台的数据会到达监管方，并使其与在其他地方的备案一致。
执法实践
市场监管总局对快手电商平台运营主体成都快购科技有限公司罚没2669.29万元，精确为人民币26,692,904.62元；案件2025年9月立案、2025年12月作出处罚。查实七类违法：未持续公示证照、服务协议与交易规则（电子商务法第15、33条）；向平台内经营者收取不合理费用及惩罚性不固定违约金（第35条）；未履行安全保障义务（第38条）；未采取必要措施制止知识产权侵权（第42、45条）；对药品、医疗器械、食品、保健食品、兽药广告审查不到位，并存功效断言、功效比较、诱导购买（广告法第9、16、46条）；”销量只增不减”展示功能帮助商家与主播虚构交易额与成交量（反不正当竞争法（2019年修订）第8条）；以及野生动物保护法第33条。处罚依据电子商务法、广告法、反不正当竞争法（2019年修订）、野生动物保护法及行政处罚法相关条款。
直播间层面案件同样严重。广东四会一家珠宝店编排”南北砍价对决””外国玉商急售”剧本并宣称玉石疗效，罚50万元，依据《规范网络不正当竞争行为暂行规定》第8条第1款、第9条第1款、第34条及反不正当竞争法（2019年修订）第8条第1款、第20条第1款。上海杨浦一家健康科技公司在私域直播宣称保健食品治病，罚35万元。内蒙古通辽一家传媒公司通过刷单虚构交易额，罚40万元，依据《暂行规定》第9条第1款第2项、第34条及反不正当竞争法第25条第1款。2025年以来，市场监管总局已公布四批共30件典型案例，并发布第五批。剧本式演绎无论多”精彩”均属虚假宣传，而虚增数据的展示功能会令平台担责——这也正是平台把要求层层传导至品牌的原因。
配套的平台规则办法
第116号令是配套约束。平台不得借规则不合理限制经营者自主经营、不合理收取费用、施加不合理”罚款”或减损会员权益；列明行为包括”二选一”、只收费不服务、强制低于成本倾销、强制付费参与促销。消费者侧：限制商品自由选择权、限制投诉举报权、”大数据杀熟”——在同等交易条件下对相同商品或服务向消费者收取不同价格或标准且未明示。
平台规则或链接须持续公示，收费与争议解决以加粗等显著方式提示；负面管理措施须充分说明理由与依据并提供申诉渠道；会员规则变更须于续费前告知。对外资品牌而言，这是撬动长期”不可谈判”条款的难得抓手。
外资品牌合规清单
- 厘清角色定位。自有直播间即直播间运营者；签约主播为直播营销人员；MCN为独立责任主体；实际运营直播间的服务商，不论账号归属均承担直播间运营者义务。将分工与对应赔偿写进合同。
- 前置商品与广告资质。药品、医疗器械、食品与保健食品、兽药、化妆品及进口食品标签均有限制与宣称边界，先定口径再写脚本。
- 若采用跨境电商零售进口模式，须公示相关状态；见本站第83篇。
- 持续标识数字人主播，将提示嵌入直播间模板。
- 在代运营与MCN合同中禁止刷单与数据展示操纵。
- 建立首问负责与先行赔偿，这是投诉中最省成本的防线。
- 留存回放、脚本、资质文件与审批轨迹；直播证据易逝，须主动保全。
- 对照第116号令审查平台协议，善用新增申诉权。
相关阅读
参见本站第43篇（中国电商市场进入路径概览）、第83篇（跨境电商零售进口指南）、第86篇（增值电信业务扩大开放说明）、第93篇（跨境电商出口海外仓指南）。
Sources