To the commerce departments of each province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government, and city specially designated in the State plan, Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps, Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, Jinan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Xi'an, and all national economic and technological development zones:

In order to further leverage the positive role of online sales and vending machine sales, etc., in reducing costs of enterprises, promoting circulation of commodities, and stimulating consumption, in accordance with the requirements of the Certain Opinions of the State Council on Further Facilitating the Utilization of Foreign Capital (Guo Fa [2010] No. 9) on simplifying the examination and approval procedures, we hereby issue the following notice on issues related to the examination, approval, and administration of foreign investment in online sales and vending machine sales projects:

1. Online sales
(1) Online sales shall be the broadening of the sales activities of enterprises carried out on the Internet. Foreign-invested manufacturing enterprises and commercial enterprises that are legally registered, subject to approval, may directly engage in online sales services;
(2) An application for the establishment of a foreign-invested enterprise to exclusively engage in online sales shall be reported to the relevant provincial commerce department for approval, and the provincial commerce department shall conduct strict examination and approval in accordance with the Administrative Measures on Foreign Investment in the Commercial Sector and other relevant laws and regulations. In a province where an integrated commerce department is not yet established, the department in charge of  foreign investment shall solicit opinions from the department in charge of domestic trade at the same level;
(3) A foreign-invested enterprise that intends to provide network services to other trading parties with its own online platform shall file an application with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for a value-added telecom service operation permit. An enterprise that directly engages in commodity sales through its own online platform shall report to the telecom administration authority for record-filing;
(4) Where a foreign-invested enterprise engages in online sales or other related services, it shall place its business license at a conspicuous place on its homepage or the webpage on which it carries out business activities. If the enterprise intends to operate oil products, crude oil, books and publications, pharmaceutical products, etc., it shall also publish the information on the relevant operation approval certificate and a distinct picture thereof or a  hyperlink to the webpage where the certificate can be displayed;
(5) A foreign-invested enterprise that engages in online sales shall establish a reasonable return and refund policy, preserve the sales record, and strictly protect the privacy and trade secrets of consumers;
(6) A foreign-invested enterprise that engages in online sales shall abide by the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests and the Law on Product Quality and other relevant laws, regulations, and rules, and shall not engage in transaction of any commodity or service that is forbidden by the laws and regulations;
(7) If the products sold or services provided by a foreign-invested enterprise through the Internet must be subject to approval prior to the registration, as provided by relevant laws and regulations, the enterprise shall report to the relevant department of the State for approval before applying for the registration and shall complete the industrial and commercial registration.

2 Vending machine sales
(1) An application for the establishment of a foreign-invested commercial enterprise to sell commodities through vending machines, or an application filed by an already-established enterprise to add vending machine sales in its business scope shall be reported to the provincial commerce department for examination and approval. The provincial department in charge of foreign investment shall solicit opinions from the department in charge of domestic trade at the same level, and conduct strict examination and approval in accordance with the Administrative Measures on Foreign Investment in the Commercial Sector and other laws and regulations on hygiene and food and drug supervision and administration, etc.
(2) An enterprise that sells commodities through vending machines shall explicitly display the name, address, and telephone number of the business operator, and way to file complaints, at a conspicuous place of the vending machines;
(3) An enterprise that sells commodities through vending machines shall establish explicitly-defined mechanisms for vending machine operation, commodity quality control, and dispute settlement;
(4) An enterprise operating vending machines shall establish a sales product data preservation mechanism and the vending machines shall automatically preserve the historical commodity sales records; and
(5) An enterprise that sells commodities through vending machines shall abide by the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests and the Law on Product Quality and other laws, regulations, and rules.