China's latest draft amendment to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law adds procedural requirements for government seizure of assets during investigations.
The draft revision was given a second reading at a five-day bimonthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, which opened Monday.
Compared with the previous draft reviewed in February, the new draft stipulates that market supervisors must hand in written reports and gain approval for investigations of suspected activities.
The seizure of assets and investigation of bank accounts must be approved by government supervisory bodies at city-level or above, according to the draft.
"Actions such as the seizure of assets and investigation of bank accounts may cause significant impacts on companies, so we have to conduct these investigations very carefully," said Zhang Mingqi, vice chairman of the Law Committee of the 12th NPC.
The new draft also made changes on regulating unfair online competition.
It stipulates that online business operators must follow the laws already in place.
"Some aspects of unfair online competition are the same as in traditional competition, while others are unique to the Internet due to technical reasons," said Zhang.
Operators cannot use technical means to influence Internet users' decisions or to disturb or sabotage products and services legally provided by other operators, the draft stated.
Banned online activity includes misleading, cheating or forcing users to "modify, close or uninstall" competitors' products or services, the draft said.
Products or services that are maliciously designed to be incompatible with other products or services are also banned, the draft noted.
The Anti-Unfair Competition Law took effect in 1993.
