Hangzhou is dubbed an e-commerce hub. [Photo/thepaper.cn]

Hangzhou, a city renowned as an e-commerce hub, is set to introduce guidelines regulating the burgeoning livestreaming industry, local media outlets reported.

The draft regulates compliance in multiple aspects, including companies, livestreaming accounts, commodities and services, livestreaming marketing, intellectual property rights, tax, consumer rights protection, and data.

The draft emphasizes that individuals in the livestreaming e-commerce sector cannot mandate that merchants sign lowest price agreements or engage in any other anti-competitive agreements, unless such arrangements don't create a monopoly, as per the law.

Livestreaming e-commerce practitioners are prohibited from violating the principles of honesty, credit, and business ethics. They must refrain from malicious competition through methods like high remuneration to poach talent, fabricating data, or providing biased comparisons.

Individual hosts involved in the marketing of healthcare, finance, law, education and other professional fields must obtain corresponding qualifications and register or undergo review as per platform or departmental requirements.

The draft also underscores in detail the protection of consumer rights.

According to data from the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce, Hangzhou boasts 32 top-tier livestreaming platforms, nearly 50,000 hosts, and over 5,000 registered livestreaming enterprises, leading the nation on both counts and providing work for over 1 million individuals.