The State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR") has recently drafted the Provisions on Administrative Law Enforcement Accountability for Market Supervision and Administration (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") for public comments by September 13, 2020.
The Draft for Comment is designed to define duties and responsibilities in accordance with the law, introduce strict accountability and practice reasonable due diligence and exemption from responsibility. Among others, it details the scope of, the procedure for, and the mode of administrative law enforcement accountability, as well as the connection with the accountability of discipline inspection and supervision organs. With respect to the scope of the administrative law enforcement accountability, the Draft for Comment emphasizes that the accountability must be based on laws, rules and regulations, and equivalent to the degree of fault of the doer and the nature, circumstance and degree of harm of a violation. In terms of the mode of accountability, the administrative treatment dominates, involving disciplinary sanctions as well. As the procedures for accountability and the application of responsibility are detailed in the Law on Governmental Sanctions and others, the Draft for Comment only cites them for reference and does not repeat relevant provisions.