On June 27, 2025, the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) passed a significant amendment to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law (AUCL) of the People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国反不正当竞争法). The amended law, which will take effect on October 15, 2025, represents a continued effort by Chinese authorities to modernize competition rules in response to evolving commercial practices, particularly in the digital and platform economy.

One of the most notable revisions is to Article 7, which expands protections for unregistered marks that have attained a “certain influence” in the market. While China is a civil law jurisdiction, this article continues to offer a form of common law–like protection by prohibiting the use of these unregistered marks as business names or search keywords. This change aims to inhibit practices, such as keyword hijacking and misleading branding, that can divert consumer attention and damage business goodwill. The updated provision also reflects a broader shift toward protecting commercial identifiers like domain names, app icons, and new media account names that function as brand signals in the digital environment.

The amended AUCL also strengthens regulation of platform-based competition, imposing new obligations on operators of digital platforms. These include the requirement to monitor and address unfair behaviors that occur within their ecosystems, such as predatory pricing, manipulation of ranking algorithms, and other forms of anticompetitive conduct. Platforms are expected to establish internal complaint systems and contract terms that define fair competition norms, thereby assuming a more active compliance role in preventing misconduct by users of their services.

In addition, the revised law broadens the scope of prohibited unfair conduct to explicitly include the misuse of data, algorithms, and platform rules. It prohibits deceptive practices such as fake transactions, fraudulent reviews, and unauthorized scraping of competitors’ data. The law also bars obtaining a rival’s legally held data through coercion, fraud, or technical circumvention, reflecting the increasing centrality of data ownership and integrity in commercial competition.

Perhaps most significantly for multinational businesses, the amended AUCL introduces an extraterritoriality clause in Article 40. This provision extends the reach of the law to conduct occurring outside of China that has a deleterious effect on competition within China’s domestic market or harms the interests of Chinese consumers or businesses. While the full scope of enforcement remains to be seen, the provision raises the possibility that foreign companies whose actions have downstream impacts in China may now face legal exposure under Chinese competition law.

Despite the many forward-looking updates, the amended AUCL stops short of addressing unfair competition issues specific to artificial intelligence.

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