This Year, the commercial departments at all levels, in concert with related departments, conscientiously implemented the spirits of the 18th Party Congress, focused on rectifying and regularizing market order, cracked down infringement and counterfeiting, strengthened the regulation of fair retailer-supplier transaction, intensified the efforts of commerce law enforcement, speeded up the development of commerce credit system, so that the market order and business environment improved continuously.

I. Focused on the prominent problems concerning the people’s interests and market environment, carried out concentrated rectification in a deep-going way. The following specific rectification was carried out successively, namely, cracking down unauthorized slaughtering, rectifying unlawful charging towards suppliers by retailers, rectifying the goods with “Special Offer” and “Exclusive” marks and regularizing the order of TV shopping industry. Centered on trademark rights, copyrights and patent rights, as well as key commodities like food and drug, agricultural materials, automobile parts, construction materials and children products, the efforts of cracking down infringement and counterfeiting were promoted continuously. From January to September, 234,000 law-breaking and criminal cases concerning infringement and counterfeiting, involving RMB 24.18 billion were investigated nationwide; administrative law enforcement departments transferred 3,837 suspected criminal cases; public security organs arrested 35,385 criminal suspects; procuratorial organs reviewed and prosecuted 7,501 suspected criminal cases and 12,990 suspected criminals, while adjudication organs adjudicated 6,773 criminal cases and rendered legally effective judgments to 10,566 persons. Moreover, a batch of major cases was investigated and related criminal offenders were punished severely, thus significantly improving market order.

II. Emphasized on establishing fair and orderly transaction order, and further strengthened the supervision of retailer-supplier transaction. In early 2013, the General Office of the State Council issued a comprehensive work program on reducing circulation expenses and improving circulation efficiency, specifying the division of responsibilities among related departments for strengthening the supervision of retailer-supplier transaction. In early February, six departments, including the Ministry of Commerce, held a video conference on cleaning-up and rectification work, at which deployments were made for further cleaning-up and rectification of illegal charging and building of a harmonious retailer-supplier relationship. In middle June, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the State Administration of Taxation and the State Administration for Industry & Commerce issued Circular on Well Development of the Supervision over Retailer-Supplier Transaction (Shang Zhi Han [2013] No. 356), requiring strengthening of the supervision and regulation of retailer-supplier transaction by all regions and departments. According to the legislative program of 2013 of the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce, in concert with the Office of Legislative Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration of Taxation and the State Administration for Industry & Commerce carried out investigation and survey on legislative work relating to fair retailer-supplier transactions, and set about drafting the Administrative Regulations on Fair Retailer-Supplier Transactions.

III. Centered on improving law enforcement level and market supervision ability, and continuously strengthened commerce law enforcement. Report and complaint network was built actively and public services became more efficient. In combination of the implementation of the program of market supervision and public services system, the 12312 national commerce report and complaint service network was built with report and complaint center at provincial and municipal levels as the main body, and report and complaint contact point at county level as the supplement, which operates in an organic and coordinated way. Until now, a total of 1,027 12312 report and complaint service centers were set up nationwide; 1,145 12312 hotlines were opened, and accumulatively 427,600 reports and complaints were accepted. 12312 centers and the commerce law enforcement teams support and rely on each other, becoming two key supporting points for the commercial departments to improve quick response and emergency disposal capability. The building of law enforcement teams was strengthened; the commerce law enforcement functions were overall integrated; law enforcement field was extended, and the efforts of law enforcement supervision and examination were intensified. Specifically, 2,152 commerce law enforcement teams in total were set up at municipal and county levels across the country, totally employing 23,000 full-time law enforcement personnel. The scope of supervision extended gradually from traditional fixed point pig slaughtering and liquor circulation law enforcement, to renewable resources, franchising, product oil, scrapped car, auction, mortgage, laundry and dying industry, commercial pre-paid card and foreign labor cooperation, thus such problems as not following the law correctly and refraining from punishing law-breakers in these fields were solved, so that the standardized and orderly development of the industry was accelerated. In Henan, Shandong and Guangxi, the full coverage of urban commerce law enforcement teams above the prefecture level was realized.

IV. Based on laying a solid foundation for social credibility, and accelerated the building of commerce credit. The general application of industry credit rating results was accelerated in enterprise qualification verification and access, project bidding and enterprises “going global”. Credit services like commerce factoring and pre-paid consumption developed rapidly. In order to strengthen the management of single-use pre-paid card, the specialized committee of pre-paid card was guided to draft the Standards on Issuance and Services of Single-use Commercial Pre-paid Cards, and the Standards on Evaluation of Credit Rating for Single-use Commercial Pre-paid Cards. Until now, the single-use commercial pre-paid card issuers that have registered surpassed 3,000 nationwide. Moreover, such activities as the “Month on Integrity for Prosperity” and the “Pilot of Commerce Credit Building” were held to create a credible social environment.

(All information published on this website is authentic in Chinese. English is provided for reference only.)