Jolene Chen
The State Administration for Market Regulation promulgated on December 31, 2019 the Interim Provisions on Market Supervision, Administration and Law Enforcement (“Interim Provisions”), which will go into effect on April 1, 2020.
The Interim Provisions specifically cover law enforcement and supervision, including the inspection, review, evaluation and correction of lower market supervisory departments by the superior market supervisory departments, and the same for the affiliated agencies, dispatch agencies and law enforcement personnel by market supervisory departments at all levels.
Enforcement and supervision mainly include the following: (1) the supervision, administration and law enforcement of the market; (2) the legality of administrative and regulatory documents; (3) the review of fair competition; (4) the legality and appropriateness of administrative penalties, permits, compulsory orders and other administrative actions; (5) the implementation of the administrative penalty discretion standards system; (6) the implementation of administrative law enforcement disclosure, the recording of the entire law enforcement process, and the legal review system for major law enforcement decisions; (7) the implementation of administrative reconsideration, administrative litigation, and the connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice; (8) the implementation of the responsibility system for administrative law enforcement; and (9) other matters requiring supervision.
The main approaches adopted for enforcement and supervision include: (1) review on the legality of administrative and regulatory documents; (2) fair competition review; (3) review and hearing of administrative penalty cases; (4) legal review of major law enforcement decisions; (5) administrative reconsideration; (6) special law enforcement inspection; (7) law enforcement evaluation; (8) review of law enforcement case files; (9) evaluation on the rule of law development; and (10) other supervisory methods permissible under law.
The Interim Provisions will help pushing market supervisory and administrative authorities to perform their duties, regulate administrative law enforcement actions, and protect the rights and interests of natural persons, legal persons and other organizations.