This is the law in China mainly protecting trade secrets and unregistered trademarks. After the last draft in December 2024, which theIntellectual Property Owners Association (IPO)provided comments on, the final version was announced on 27 June 2025 at the link below:
https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/fl/202506/t20250627_699862.shtml
This 2026 UACL will be effective from 15 October 2025.
Comparing with the submitted comments from the IPO in January 2025 (seehttps://ipo.org/index.php/ipo-comments-to-legislative-affairs-commission-of-the-standing-committee-of-chinas-national-peoples-congress-on-draft-amendments-to-chinas-anti-unfair-competition-law/), I have the following observations (the article numbers below are those in the 2026 AUCL):
- Articles 6, 14, and 15 – While "platform operator" has been removed from article 6 as suggested by the IPO, articles 14 and 15 remain unchanged. It appears that article 6 has been changed to catch all unfair competition acts, while article 14 is specific to platform operators (against using platform rules to sell goods at price below costs), and article 15 is to target large enterprises against unreasonable payment terms. I believe these articles 14 and 15 are specifically designed against "involution" (内捲), the current Chinese government hot topic. If you need more explanation of this term in China, let me know, but it would be fun to google it to find out what it means.
- Article 7 – Articles 7(4) (against use of other's trademark as company name) and article 7(5) (unauthorized use of the commodity or enterprise name having influence as search keyword, this could cause compliance problems to search engines) in the December 2024 draft has been put in a separate clause, i.e. the IPO's suggestion to eliminate article 7(5) wasnotadopted. On the other hand, the IPO's suggestion to include "lead to the mistaken belief that a specific connection exists" has been adopted.
- Article 10 – Remains unchanged, that is, the IPO's suggestion of including modifications of misappropriated trade secrets and their uses as infringement wasnotadopted.
- Articles 13 – The proposed (in the December 2024 draft) new articles 13(4) and 13(5) have been deleted, kind of in light of the comments from the IPO.
- Article 18 – Remains unchanged, that is, the IPO's suggestion of adding "Business operators shall co-operate with such investigations and requests including, but not limited to, by disclosing the source of their infringing goods" wasnotadopted.
- New article 21 – The IPO's suggestion to add this article directing to the platform operators has been adopted, butnotin the wordings suggested by the IPO to be able to fine the platform operators. However, this new article 21 requires platform operators establishing mechanisms and keeping records to handle unfair competition complaints. Another compliance problem for platform operators in China.
- Article 23 – Largely remained unchanged (corresponding to article 22 in the December 2024 draft), that is, the IPO's suggestion of disclosing the source of the infringing goods wasnotadopted.
- Articles 23, 24, and 25 – The IPO suggestion of revising articles 24 and 25 (corresponding to articles 23 and 24 in the December 2024 draft, respectively) to parallel the wordings in Article 22 (i.e., the revocation of the business license should be done together with fines in severe cases) has been adopted.
- Article 24 (corresponding to article 23 in the December 2024 draft) – Although the IPO's suggestion to simplify the fine mechanism has been adopted, it is disappointing to see that the fine hasnotbeen increased, which may send the wrong message.
- Articles 25, 26, 28, and 29 (corresponding to articles 24, 25, 27 and 28 in the December 2024 draft, respectively) – Remains unchanged regarding the minimum punishment amount for non-serious cases, that is, the IPO's suggestion wasnotadopted.
- Article 34 in the December 2024 draft – This article has been totally deleted, making the IPO's suggestion moot. This deleted article appears to be redundant regarding confiscation of the illegal gains of the infringer.
- Article 40 – Remained unchanged, that is, the IPO's suggestion to restrict the "long-arm jurisdiction" wasnotadopted. That is, China would have jurisdiction on unfair anti-competition actions carried out outside of China that affects the Chinese market.
Other than those discussed above, the 2026 AUCL has the following good changes:
- Introduction of the "online" elements, for example inclusion of protection online names, media account names, and application name or icon (article 7).
- Introduction of article against bribes (article 8) and fraud activities including fake transaction and review (article 13).
It is encouraging to see that many of the IPO's suggestions have been adopted in the final version of the 2026 AUCL. Thank you everyone who participated in the commenting project in December 2024 and January 2025 (during Christmas and the New Year, not an ideal time). Well done.
As always, any further thoughts are welcome.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
