On December 31, 2011, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (“MIIT”) published final rules on competition between providers of Internet information services (“PIIS”), users’ rights and protection of online personal data (the “Internet Rules”). An interpretation of the Internet Rules was published on the same day. The Internet Rules will come into effect on March 15, 2012.
The Internet Rules reflect a mixture of antitrust, unfair trade law and consumer protection principles and overlap to a certain extent with each of the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law, Anti-Unfair Competition Law and the Consumer Protection Law. This Memorandum summarizes the scope and main substantive provisions of the Internet Rules.
