The State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR") has recently distributed the Circular on Intensifying Regulation of Certification (the "Circular").
The Circular expressly states that all levels of market regulators (including their local offices) shall perform regulatory functions in seven respects over certification, including "being responsible for investigating and punishing irregularities of certification agencies" and "being responsible for investigating and punishing irregularities of certification practitioners". Further, the Circular states that certification agencies may be supervised by means of spot checks of their certification activities and certification results, while certification practitioners may be supervised by means of field inspections conducted at certification agencies and checks performed at the certified organizations. As regards the supervision of certificates and certification marks, inspections may be launched to look into the use of certificates and certification marks by relevant enterprises, for example. Moreover, the Circular highlights the position of the "dual randomness and one publicity" mechanism as a basic regulatory approach over certification activities, a replacement of the former patrol inspection mechanism during the routine regulation process. Also, a credit-based regulatory mechanism and a certification risk monitoring and early-warning mechanism will be formed.