Douyin shops that sell goods with misleading brand claims face delisting on a first strike and, by a third, closure and a 90-day payout freeze. The platform’s e-commerce operations team set out the penalties on 2 November in new disposal rules for publishing or sharing brand-confusing information (发布/分享混淆品牌信息). Creators who promote such goods risk losing selling tools for good.
Six kinds of brand-confusing promotion are named
The rules cover product listings by merchants and product sharing by creators. A breach is any description or promotion that is likely to leave consumers confused or mistaken about a product’s brand. Selling goods from brands that Douyin bans under its product brand management rules (《商品品牌管理规范》) also counts.
The notice lists six common forms of brand-confusing promotion:
- promoting several brands at once so the real brand cannot be told apart;
- hiding, altering or dodging the product’s real brand information;
- using altered logos, homophones, variant spellings or derivative words of another brand to suggest a link;
- showing unrelated brands or comparing the product with other brands;
- promoting, or hinting at, brand A while actually selling brand B;
- highlighting a component’s brand so buyers think the whole product carries it.
For merchants, the risk sits in main images, titles and the style or accessory details on product pages. For creators, it covers livestreams, short videos and image posts, whether or not the platform’s product-sharing tool is used. Voice-overs, subtitles, backdrops, comment replies and account details are all in scope.
Merchants move from delisting to store closure by the third breach
A first breach by a merchant means the product is taken down. Penalties then step up with repeat offences, attempts to evade platform controls, or large impact such as high sales of the offending goods.
| Level | Trigger (any one) | Possible measures |
|---|---|---|
| First breach | First violation | Product delisted |
| Second level | Second violation; evading platform controls or larger impact; violation by a linked entity | Product ban; product sharing restricted for 7 days; payouts for the offending goods over the past 30 days frozen and settlement stopped for 30 days |
| Third level | Three or more violations; selling restricted-sale brands while evading controls or with larger impact; a linked entity removed for violations | Store removed; store payouts frozen and settlement stopped for 90 days |
Where a case draws many consumer complaints, triggers public controversy or regulatory risk, or exposes the platform to legal risk, Douyin says it may also limit listings and transactions, freeze deposits or close sharing permissions. Particularly serious cases can lead straight to store removal.
Creators face a three-year livestream ban for serious cases
A creator’s first breach can bring an interrupted livestream, shopping carts removed from videos or posts, product sharing switched off for 7 days and settlement of related orders paused for 30 days.
Heavier measures apply from the second breach, for sharing restricted-sale brands, or for evading controls. They include permanently closing product sharing, freezing the commission account for 90 days, pausing settlement for 90 days, a three-year ban on livestreaming and a 30-day ban on posting comments.
The same heavier tier covers creators who steer viewers to trade on third-party platforms, offline or through other channels. The notice names voice-overs, comments, private messages, QR codes, co-streaming, nicknames, bios and content titles as ways this happens.
How Douyin decides that shoppers could be confused
The test is whether an ordinary consumer, browsing with normal attention, would be likely to form an inaccurate view of a product’s real brand. Douyin says it finds target brands and products through manual and system checks.
It then reviews logo images, product images, reviews, after-sales records and complaint data, together with general public perception and consumer feedback. Brand lists are updated through in-app messages, and merchants are told to check their listings regularly.
Repeat offences are counted by scenario. In the notice’s example, a merchant whose product A is delisted on 1 May for brand confusion and who then lists confusing product B the same day has committed a second breach.
Appeals must be filed within 7 or 14 days
Merchants have 7 calendar days from the penalty notice to appeal through the Doudian (抖店) back end; creators have 14 calendar days through the Buyin (百应) back end. Missing the window counts as accepting the decision.
Sellers that hold the brand rights or authorisation can appeal with a trademark registration certificate, a brand licence or legitimate purchase invoices.
Coming up · We may follow up with Douyin’s product brand management rules, which define its banned and restricted-sale brand lists.
