SAMR Issues Regulations on Discretion in Market Supervision Administrative Penalties

The State Administration for Market Regulation has issued the Regulations on Discretion in Administrative Penalties of Market Supervision, providing systematic rules in the form of departmental rules on standardizing the discretionary power in market supervision administrative penalties. Building on the existing Guiding Opinions on Regulating Discretion in Administrative Penalties of Market Supervision, the Regulations elevate discretionary rules from normative documents to departmental rules, enhancing the institutional rigidity and authority of the system. The Regulations also specify requirements for the entities responsible for formulating discretionary benchmarks, the formulation procedures, main contents, and adjustment and application, further improving the scientific basis and precision of these benchmarks. The Regulations divide administrative penalty discretion into five tiers: no penalty, mitigated penalty, lenient penalty, standard penalty, and aggravated penalty, and set out specific provisions on the applicable circumstances for each tier. (CCTV News)