China Cracks Down on Fake Online Reviews With New Rules

China has introduced sweeping new regulations targeting the murky world of online product reviews, requiring reviewers to disclose commercial relationships, use accredited testing methods, and clearly label subjective opinions. The “Regulations on Online Evaluation Activities,” jointly issued on June 8 by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), represent the country’s first comprehensive legal framework specifically governing the multi-billion-yuan online review industry.

A System Under Strain

Online product evaluations — known in Chinese as wangluo ceping — have become a cornerstone of consumer culture in the world’s largest e-commerce market. From smartphones and cosmetics to baby formula and home appliances, millions of Chinese consumers rely on “测评博主” (review bloggers) to guide purchasing decisions. But as the industry exploded in recent years, so did its problems.

According to Xinhua News, many online evaluations appeared professional but suffered from “evaluation without testing,” exaggerated claims, and the integration of commerce and evaluation. A March 2026 survey by the Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission found that over 20% of third-party evaluation videos contained information that misled consumers.

What the New Rules Require

The regulations establish a dual-track system distinguishing between professional commercial evaluations and ordinary consumer experience sharing. Professional testing must now be conducted by legally accredited inspection bodies using standard methods. Food testing carries even stricter requirements — testers must hold specific qualifications and cannot use non-standard methods or evaluate products lacking national standard testing protocols.

Subjective reviews based solely on personal experience must be clearly labeled as “personal experience only” or “subjective opinion, for reference only.” As China News Service reported, this distinction prevents subjective opinions from being presented as authoritative testing.

Perhaps most significantly, reviewers must prominently disclose any commercial relationships — including sponsorship, commissions, or financial interests in the products being reviewed. Review samples must be ordinary consumer goods available on the open market, not specially prepared items. The regulations also prohibit using different standards or methods to compare similar products, directly targeting the practice of biased comparisons known colloquially as “拉踩” (pulling down one brand to elevate another).

Expert Reactions

Legal experts broadly welcomed the regulations as a necessary step to clean up a chaotic industry. Liu Xiaochun, Director of the Internet Rule of Law Research Center at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua that the rules are “highly targeted, designed with the long-standing typical problems in the online evaluation field as the ‘target.’”

Huang Yinxu, Associate Professor at Renmin University of China Law School, noted that the regulations “distinguish between ordinary netizens’ experience sharing and professional evaluation entities, building a full-chain rigid constraint from pre-qualification, testing procedures to supervision and accountability.” However, Huang warned that labeling content as “personal experience” is not a “get-out-of-jail-free card” — fabrications, exaggerated claims, and hidden commercial cooperation will still trigger legal consequences under China’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law and Advertising Law.

The Scale of the Problem

The regulations arrive amid mounting evidence of systemic abuse in the review industry. As MacroChina/Economic Reference News reported, the CAC and SAMR identified problems including “exaggerated claims, evaluation without testing, and commerce-evaluation integration” as key drivers behind the new rules.

Investigative reporting by CCTV and China News Service in late June exposed a three-layer cheating system in smartphone reviews, where manufacturers provided specially optimized “media review units” with hardware selection, firmware-level identification programs that automatically activated high-performance mode for reviewers, and cloud-based remote control capable of issuing review-cheating configurations in real time.

In the food sector, misleading “scientific experiments” — such as奶粉 (milk powder) digestion tests using simulated stomach acid in glass beakers — were shown to have no scientific basis yet were used to drive consumer anxiety and promote specific brands.

A landmark 2023 case saw the blogger “Home Appliance Soldier” ordered to pay 3 million yuan (approximately $415,000) in damages for commercial defamation through fake refrigerator and air conditioner reviews, with the verdict upheld on appeal.

Broader Implications

The new regulations are part of China’s broader push to regulate its digital economy, following algorithmic recommendation rules (2022), livestreaming e-commerce regulations, and enhanced consumer protections. For consumers, the rules promise clearer signals about which reviews are professional and which are subjective. For platforms like Taobao, JD.com, and Douyin, the regulations will require investment in content moderation systems to identify and label evaluation content appropriately.

As Chen Yinjiang, Deputy Secretary-General of the Consumer Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, told Shanghai Online, authorities should “establish a corresponding evaluation blacklist” for those who deceive consumers with false data. The effectiveness of the regulations will ultimately depend on enforcement coordination between the CAC and SAMR across China’s vast social media and e-commerce landscape.

What to Watch

Industry observers are watching for several developments: the timeline for full implementation and any grace period for compliance; the specific penalties that will apply to violations; and how “qualified testing institutions” will be defined and accredited across different product categories. The regulations’ impact on cross-border e-commerce and international brands operating in China also remains an open question.

For now, China’s army of review bloggers — estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands — faces a new reality: the era of “testing whatever you want, however you want” is officially over.