XVI

A performance that is not profitable, and shown only for the purpose of advertising, is still a commercial performance, whose organizer shall apply to the culture administrative department of the county-level people’s government in the place where the performance is located in advance to obtain approval documents; otherwise it will be determined as “hosting unapproved commercial performances”, which may encounter the following administrative punishments: injunction, confiscation and fine.If the circumstances are severe, the commercial performance license may be revoked.

Case: The real estate company A entrusted a culture communication company B to hold a household product launch and a celebrity in order to increase its popularity and show gratefulness to customers.Company B was responsible for running advertisements and giving away tickets prior to the performance.The performance was to thank the customers,thus, all the tickets were given away.The company did not make a profit.However, as the company verif ied that it had not applied for a commercial performance license in advance, it was required to stop the performance immediately, and was fined RMB 51,000 yuan.(Le Wen Fa Zi [2018]No.069).(https://www.daowen.com)

According to the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Regulation on the Administration of Commercial Performance, commercial performances refer to live cultural performances which are held for the public with the purpose of making profits through the following ways: (1) selling tickets or being sponsored; (2) paying or remunerating the performance entities or individuals; (3) using the performance as a medium for advertising publicity or sales promotion of products; (4) organizing performance in any other profit-making form.The above-mentioned case belongs to item (3), which is an event organized for advertising, and is a“commercial performance” as defined by law.According to the Regulation on the Administration of Commercial Performances, organizing commercial performances requires applying for approval documents in advance,otherwise administrative penalties will be faced, including: an order to stop performances, confiscation of any illegal income, a fine not less than 8 times nor more than 10 times of any illegal income; if there is no illegal income or the illegal income is less than RMB 10,000 yuan, a fine of RMB 50,000 to RMB 100,000 yuan shall be imposed.If a serious consequence is made, the business performance license shall be revoked by the original license-issuing authority.