On 12 November, State Administration for Industry & Commerce of the People’s Republic of China Consumer Protection Bureau issued G.S.X.Z. [2015] No. 189 Document Opinions on Strengthening and Standardising Quality Inspection for Products Sold Online (hereinafter referred to as “Opinions”) so as to supervise the quality of products sold online.

There are several points worth concern in the Opinions:
1. There is a higher likelihood of quality inspection for the products with more quality issues as complained by consumers or reflected by organisations and enforcement departments;
2. The random inspection shall be vigorously promoted;
3. The quality inspection result of products intended for online sale has the same effectiveness as that of offline, which can be deemed as a basis for the implementation of industrial and commercial departments for inspection;
4. For products prove failure in the quality inspection according to laws, industrial and commercial departments shall require relevant operators stop the sale; meanwhile, operators should return the products at the request of consumers;
5. For products prove failure in the quality inspection, online and offline operators shall immediately stop the sale of products of the same brand and stipulation, and third-party trading platforms also should delete the information of such products;
6. Any violation of such operators shall be treated according to laws and the result of administrative punishment shall be recorded in the corporate credit archives, which will be open to the public via corporate credit public system.

Reminder: Product testing is essential for products intended for online or offline sale.