China’s Livestream E-commerce Rules 2026: Host and MCN Duties

The Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Livestream E-commerce are the rules on selling through live streams that China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) issued as Order No. 117 on December 18, 2025; they took effect on February 1, 2026.⁠¹ They run to 69 articles in seven chapters: one each for platform operators, for live-room operators and hosts, and for host service agencies, followed by supervision and penalties.⁠¹

They cover “livestream e-commerce”: selling goods or services through websites, apps and similar services by video live streaming, audio live streaming or both. They apply to that activity anywhere in the People’s Republic of China (Article 2).⁠¹

Date	Event	Source
2021-04-23	The CAC and six other departments issue the trial measures on live-streaming marketing, 30 articles, in force May 25, 2021	CAC release⁠2⁠; full text⁠3
2025-06-10	SAMR publishes a draft, written with the CAC; comments close July 10, 2025	Notice inviting comment⁠4
2025-12-18	SAMR and CAC issue Order No. 117	Heading of the measures⁠1
2026-01-07	Full text posted on cac.gov.cn and samr.gov.cn	Page dates⁠1
2026-02-01	In force	Article 69⁠1
Before every stream	Live-room operator reports each verified host’s identity to the platform	Article 28⁠1
At least every six months	Platform re-verifies each live-room operator’s registration	Article 8⁠1
Every January and July	Platform reports room operators’ and hosts’ identity data to the provincial market regulator where it is based	Article 9⁠1

When the draft came out, SAMR explained the design: the platform is the hub of livestream commerce and passes compliance duties down to everyone else, while the rules extend supervision to individual hosts and digital humans and set up host training and blacklists.⁠⁵

The measures regulate four parties: platform operators, live-room operators, livestream marketers and livestream marketer service agencies. In industry terms, the last two are hosts and MCNs.⁠¹ Article 2 defines them:⁠¹

• Platform operator: a company or other organization that provides the online venue, transaction matching and information publishing.
• Live-room operator: a person or organization that opens a live room on a platform, or through its own website or another online service, to sell. Anyone who actually runs someone else’s live room takes on the same duties.
• Livestream marketer (host): a natural person who promotes goods or services directly to the public during a livestream sale.
• Livestream marketer service agency (MCN): an organization that provides planning, operations, talent management, training and technical support to hosts. For where the term MCN comes from, see the glossary entry MCN.

Together they form a chain of checks: the platform verifies live rooms, live rooms verify hosts and sellers, agencies verify hosts, the live rooms they work with and the sellers whose products they select, and the platform reports identity data to the provincial market regulator where it is based.

No.	Who → whom	Duty	Article
1	Platform → provincial market regulator	Reports room operators’ and hosts’ identity data each January and July	Art. 9⁠1
2	Platform → live-room operator	Verifies and registers it on entry; re-verifies at least every six months	Art. 8⁠1
3	Live-room operator → platform	Reports each host’s verified identity before every stream	Art. 28⁠1
4	Live-room operator → host	Verifies identity; corrects slips and improper or incomplete claims on air	Art. 28, 31⁠1
5	Live-room operator → actual seller	Checks licenses, compulsory certification and product conformity papers; keeps records at least three years	Art. 27⁠1
6	Agency → host	Verifies identity at recruitment, signs an agreement, trains, manages and acts on violations	Art. 39–42⁠1
7	Agency → live-room operator	Verifies it before working together; signs a written agreement	Art. 43⁠1
8	Agency → actual seller	When it selects products, checks the same papers; keeps records at least three years	Art. 45⁠1
9	Platform → agency	Warning, function and traffic limits, suspension, account closure, blacklist; the same applies to live-room operators and hosts	Art. 12, 14⁠1

Platforms carry the longest list, Articles 6 to 24 in Chapter 2, including yearly host training (Article 10), tiered management of live rooms (Article 11) and keeping transaction data for at least three years (Article 16).⁠¹ Other online services that provide all or part of the venue, matching or publishing functions take on the matching platform duties (Article 24).⁠¹

A host’s core duty is truthful selling: no false or misleading claims about who the seller is or about a product’s performance, function, quality, sales, user reviews, awards or certifications, and no using AI or similar technology to fabricate or spread false commercial information or to impersonate someone else (Article 34).⁠¹ The other rules, by topic:

Topic	Rule	Article
Identity	Gives the live-room operator their name, ID number, usual address, contact details, agency and relevant professional qualifications; the operator verifies them and reports them to the platform before every stream	Art. 8, 28⁠1
Training	Attends platform training, including before a first stream, and may not fake it or refuse it	Art. 10⁠1
Products	May not sell goods or services that are unsafe, substandard or prohibited	Art. 33⁠1
Competitors	May not invent or spread false information that harms another business’s reputation	Art. 36⁠1
Advertising	Where a stream is commercial advertising, carries the duties of an advertising publisher, agency or endorser	Art. 35⁠1

Article 35 also says when a stream is generally advertising: when an influential person who is not the seller recommends or vouches for a product in their own name or image, and when stream footage is recorded, cut and republished as text, images, video or audio to promote the product.⁠¹ A host who becomes an endorser this way must meet the Advertising Law’s endorser duties, and false advertising is punished under Article 55 of that law (Article 62).⁠¹

Two situations change a host’s position:

• Running their own live room. A host who opens a live room as an individual is also a live-room operator and carries all of Chapter 3: publishing identity details on the account page, showing the actual seller, checking the seller’s papers and reviewing content before going live (Articles 2 and 25 to 32).⁠¹ An individual who is not required to register a business must show an actual business address, contact details and their agency on the account page (Article 25).⁠¹ A separate rule on showing the agency’s name on signed accounts is covered in China’s 2026 MCN rules.
• Acting as an employee. Where a host breaches Article 33, 34 or 36 in the course of their job, the employer carries the administrative liability, unless there is evidence the conduct had nothing to do with the job (Article 63).⁠¹

An agency’s duties sit in Chapter 4, Articles 38 to 45, eight articles in all: manage hosts (verify, sign, train, supervise), manage partnerships (vet live rooms and sign written agreements), manage product selection (check sellers), and never stage fake sales or reviews.⁠¹

Article 43 is the most detailed: before working with a live-room operator, the agency verifies its name, unified social credit code, address, contact details and licenses, and signs a written agreement dividing host management, content management, product quality review and consumer protection.⁠¹ Articles 38 and 42 add internal rules for managing hosts and a system for acting promptly on their violations.⁠¹

Host and agency duties side by side:

Topic	Host (livestream marketer)	MCN (service agency)
Identity	Verified by the live-room operator and reported to the platform before every stream (Art. 28)	Verifies the host’s identity and qualifications at recruitment (Art. 39)
Agreement	Signs an agreement with the agency setting out each side’s duties (Art. 40)	May not use it to reduce its own liability; signs a written agreement with any live room it works with (Art. 40, 43)
Training	Attends platform training; may not fake or refuse it (Art. 10)	Trains hosts and reminds them of their duties (Art. 41)
Claims	No false claims; no AI fabrication or impersonation (Art. 34)	No fake transactions or reviews (Art. 44)
Products	No unsafe, substandard or prohibited goods (Art. 33)	When selecting products, checks the seller and keeps records three years (Art. 45)
Management	Conduct on the job is the employer’s administrative liability (Art. 63)	Internal management and a system for acting on violations (Art. 38, 42)
Penalties	Art. 34 breaches under the Anti-Unfair Competition Law; false ads under the Advertising Law (Art. 62)	Failing the checks or supervision: fine of 10,000–100,000 yuan if it refuses to correct or the case is serious (Art. 64)

All of the above is from the text of the measures.⁠¹

On penalties: Article 64 applies where no law or administrative regulation provides otherwise; market regulators first order the agency to correct the failure, and fine it only if it refuses or the case is serious.⁠¹ A breach of Article 44 is punished under Article 25(1) of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and false advertising under Article 55 of the Advertising Law (Article 62).⁠¹ Regulators at county level or above where the agency is based have jurisdiction (Article 47).⁠¹

What a management contract should say, and how exits work, is a separate question: see influencer management.

The live-room operator answers for an AI-generated host: the AI-generated human images or video must meet laws, regulations, rules and mandatory national standards, be labeled under state rules, and be flagged to consumers continuously as AI-generated; if they break the law, the live-room operator that manages or uses them is liable (Article 37).⁠¹

Other AI provisions:

• Live-room operators and hosts may not use AI or similar technology to fabricate or spread false or misleading commercial information, or to impersonate others in commercial promotion (Article 34, paragraph 2).⁠¹
• Platforms must take effective measures to prevent and deal with that conduct (Article 17).⁠¹
• A live-room operator that fails the labeling duty in Article 37(1) is ordered to correct it where no law or administrative regulation provides otherwise, and fined 10,000 to 100,000 yuan if it refuses or the case is serious (Article 59).⁠¹

At SAMR’s press conference launching the measures in January 2026, the head of its online transaction department described this as bringing AI-generated content such as digital-human hosts under supervision.⁠⁶ For how the rules on AI misuse of a real person’s likeness and voice have moved, see the AI likeness rules timeline.

Under the measures a brand is “the business actually selling the goods or services”, and the live-room operator must verify its name, unified social credit code, actual business address, contact details, administrative licenses, compulsory product certification and product conformity papers; an agency that selects the products must check the same (Articles 27 and 45).⁠¹ A checklist before signing:

1. Papers. Business registration, licenses, compulsory certification (CCC) and conformity documents, ready for the live room and whoever selects products.⁠¹
2. Seller details on screen. The live page must keep showing the actual seller’s name, business address and contact details; a link to them may not require several jumps, a follow, a tip or similar barriers (Article 26).⁠¹
3. Pricing. Product name, price and unit shown clearly; where prices are compared or discounted, the reference price or the basis of the discount shown too (Article 32).⁠¹
4. Claims. Evidence behind every claim on performance, function, quality, sales, reviews, awards and certifications (Article 34); the live-room operator reviews scripts and displays before the stream (Article 30).⁠¹
5. Endorsement. A host with some public influence who is not the seller and recommends your product in their own name or image is generally advertising, and the host carries endorser duties under the Advertising Law (Article 35).⁠¹ What permissions a brand needs to run a host’s content as paid ads is covered in usage rights for ads.
6. The agency and live-room agreement. When an agency works with a live room, their written agreement must divide product quality review and consumer protection (Article 43).⁠¹ Ask to see how that split is drawn, so you know who handles after-sales.
7. Records. The platform keeps transaction data, including the stream replay, interactions and a snapshot of the product page at the time of the order, for at least three years (Article 16).⁠¹

Foreign brands selling into China through live streams face the same checks, because the measures apply to livestream e-commerce in the PRC (Article 2).⁠¹ For choosing Chinese platforms and running ads there, see China market entry; for working with Chinese creators, see cross-border influencer marketing.

Three things changed most for hosts and agencies: agencies got a chapter of their own, host identity checks moved to the live-room operator with a report to the platform before every stream, and the labeling of AI-generated hosts moved from the platform to the live-room operator. The 2021 trial measures mention agencies only in the definitions (Article 2), platform agreements (Article 7), tax withholding (Article 16) and written agreements (Article 24);⁠³ the 2026 measures give them eight articles in Chapter 4.⁠¹

Topic	2021 trial measures	2026 measures (Order No. 117)
Issued by	The CAC and six other departments⁠2	SAMR and the CAC⁠1
Agency definition	A specialized organization providing planning, operations, talent management, training and the like (Art. 2)⁠3	An organization providing planning, operations, talent management, training and technical support (Art. 2)⁠1
Agency duties	Platforms sign agreements requiring agencies to regulate recruitment and training (Art. 7); hosts and live rooms sign written agreements with agencies (Art. 24)⁠3	Chapter 4, Articles 38 to 45⁠1
Host identity checks	Platforms verify every host before each stream (Art. 8)⁠3	Live room verifies and reports before every stream; platform runs dynamic checks (Art. 8, 28)⁠1
Virtual and AI hosts	Platform runs a security assessment and labels them (Art. 13); using someone’s likeness needs consent (Art. 25)⁠3	Live room labels and flags them continuously and is liable (Art. 37); no AI fabrication or impersonation (Art. 34)⁠1
Penalties	Dealt with under the relevant laws (Art. 28)⁠3	Fines of 10,000–100,000 yuan in several articles, e.g. Art. 59 and 64⁠1

The final chapter of the 2026 measures has two articles, 68 (other departments supervise within their remit) and 69 (the effective date); neither repeals the 2021 trial measures.⁠¹

Common claims vs. the text (checked 2026-10-17)

Common claim	What the text says
Hosts and MCNs must report host data every January and July	That report is the platform’s, to the provincial market regulator where it is based (Art. 9); live rooms report to the platform before every stream (Art. 28); Chapter 4 sets no periodic report for agencies⁠1
MCN duties are Articles 38 to 42	Chapter 4 runs to Article 45: Article 43 (vetting and signing with live rooms), 44 (no fake transactions or reviews) and 45 (product-selection checks) also bind agencies⁠1
Platforms label digital-human hosts	That was Article 13 of the 2021 trial measures;⁠3 Article 37 of the 2026 measures puts labeling and continuous notice on the live-room operator⁠1
The rules only cover the big livestream platforms	Other online services providing part of the platform functions take on the matching duties (Article 24)⁠1
A host always answers personally for violations	Conduct on the job is the employer’s administrative liability, unless shown to be unrelated to the job (Art. 63)⁠1

This article summarizes public rules and is not legal advice; rely on your contract and qualified counsel for any specific deal.

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