New Rules In China Aim To Protect Student Consumers

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China has recently issued opinions on regulating the marketing activities of telecom operators on university campuses.

The opinions state that telecom operators should protect the legal rights of young consumers and should not sign exclusive agreements with schools. While no specific penalties were mentioned for telecommunications companies that refrain from following the guidelines, opinions in edicts like these are often adhered to by Chinese firms.

The opinions said that when implementing marketing on campuses, basic telecom operating enterprises should not sign exclusive agreements with schools to squeeze out other competitors. They should not denigrate their competitors, make comparative propaganda, or any other advertisements that may affect the normal business of their competitors. Telecom operators should not mail their SIM cards or business promotion brochure with the admission notice to students without their consent. Telecom operators should also not buy back terminal devices such as mobile phones and batteries or SIM cards of their competitors.

In addition, telecom operators should not force campus users to use their designated services or devices when building campus information construction projects.

MIIT also asked telecom operators to fully respect the legal rights of campus users. Telecom operators should not mislead campus users or limit them to designated services. Meanwhile, telecom service providers should also enhance their management of agents and regulate these agents' marketing activities on campus.

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