Laws of the Guangdong Province

Administrative Rules of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on Product Codes

 (Promulgated by Decree 47 of Shenzhen Municipal People' s Government on April 14, 1995; Revised by Decree 82 of Shenzhen Municipal People' s Government on January 26, 1999)

Chapter One   General Principles

    Article 1  These Rules are formulated according to relevant state regulations and in combination with the actual circumstances of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (hereinafter referred to as the special zone) in order to push forward the progress of coding products in the special zone, share the information of production and sales, raise the product' s competition capacity and promote the development of social economic and trade in the special zone.

กกกกArticle 2  These Rules shall be applicable to the units and individuals using and producing product codes.

กกกกArticle 3  The term of "product code" mentioned in these Rules refers to the international article code (EAN code) and the American product code (UPC code) used in the international circulation.

Article 4  The administrative department of technology supervision of Shenzhen Municipality shall be the competent department taking charge of the coding work (hereinafter referred to as the code competent department), shall be responsible for uniformly organizing, coordinating and administering the coding work in the area under its jurisdiction, and shall fulfill the following duties:

1. putting into effect the national standards of code and relevant technology documents. It is encouraged to adopt international standards;

2. receiving the applications for registering product codes;

3. taking charge of the daily administration to product codes and the supervision to the quality of code products; and

4. organizing the technology exchanging and training in the code industry.

Chapter  Two  the Registration, Recording and Using of Product Codes

Article 5  All the product codes for use shall be registered. No unit or individual may fabricate a product code or use other' s product code.

Article 6  Enterprises may apply for registering product codes voluntarily. Any unit which applies for registering a product code shall submit the following materials to the code competent department for preliminary examination:
    1. the application letter for registering product codes;
    2. the certificate of the unit code and the copy of business license;

3. the certificate of registered trademark if the product code is used on a product with registered trademark.

The code competent department shall submit the application which passes the preliminary examination to the national code competent department for review within 7 days.

Article 7  If the area for printing of a product' s package or label is less than 40 square centimeters, a shorten code may be applied for using.

Article 8  An enterprise may not formally use its registered product code or become a member of the Chinese Product Code System (hereinafter referred to as the system member) until it gets the certificate of registered product code. The code competent department shall regularly publicize the product codes registered by the system members.

Article 9  The system member shall have exclusive using rights to its registered product code, and shall fulfill the following duties:

1. using its registered product code only on the products produced or operated by it, except under the circumstances stipulated by Article 14;

2. using the product code according to relevant national standards, or according to its own standards made in consistence with the national standards.

Article 10  The using period of a product code shall be 2 years, and shall be applied for renewal when the period expires. The code competent department shall inform system members of the renewal in writing at 3 months before the period expires. If a system member does not apply for renewal after the period expires, the code competent department shall cancel its certificate of registered product code and make a publication. The term of "code renewal" mentioned in these Rules refers to that a system member asks to continually use its product code after the using period expires.

Article 11  If a system member changes its name, it shall go to the code competent department to go through the formalities of name changing by its business license within 30 days upon the changing date. The code competent department shall publicize the renamed product code.

Article 12  If a system member stop using a product code, it shall apply to the code competent department for cancelling the product code.

The code competent department shall publicize the cancelled product code which is stopped to be used. No unit or individual may start using the cancelled product code arbitrarily.

Article 13  If an enterprise wants to use the cancelled product code again, it shall go through the formalities of registering product codes again according to Article 6 of these Rules.

Article 14  If an enterprise is entrusted in processing a product and uses the product code registered by the entrusting party, it shall register and record the following materials to the code competent department within 30 days upon the processing contract taking into effect:

1. the entrusting party' s certificate of registered product code;

2. the processing contract.

Article 15  If an enterprise applies for registering or changing a product code, it shall pay fees according to the national regulations.

Chapter Three  the Supervision and Administration to the Code Products

Article 16  If an enterprise produces, operates a code product or uses a product code, it shall accord with the requirements of compulsory national standards and industry standards, or the requirements of its own standards if there is no national or industry standards.

Article 17  Any enterprise which produces printed matters of product code shall have the printing ability, and may not engage in the business of printing product codes until the code competent department grants it a qualification certificate of printing.

Article 18  When the code competent department carries out supervision and selective examination to code products, it may go to the producing, operating or using unit for checking its certificate of registered product code, recording certificate and qualification certificate of printing.

The code competent department may detain the person who is suspected to be involved in forging or fabricating any one of the certificates mentioned in the preceding paragraph or a code product, but shall make the settlement decision within 15 days upon the detaining date and inform him of the decision. If the period for making the decision needs to be prolonged because the case is important and complex, it may be prolonged by 15 days with the approval of the chief administrative officer of the competent department.

When the code competent department exercises its powers stipulated in Paragraph 1 or 2, there shall be more than 2 administrative law-enforcement officers. The officers shall present their certificates of law enforcement to the unit accepting selective examination.

Chapter Four  Penalty Provisions

Article 19  Anyone who fabricates a product code or uses other' s product code in violation of the provisions of Paragraph 2 of Article 5 of these Rules shall be ordered to make correction within a limited time by the code competent department, and shall be imposed a fine of 1 to 3 times of his illegal gains simultaneously.

Article 20  Anyone who uses an unregistered product code or does not put a product code for record in violation of the provisions of Paragraph 1 of Article 5 or Article 14 of these Rules shall be ordered to supplement the relevant formalities by the code competent department, and shall be imposed a fine of 5000 yuan if he refuses to obey the order.

Article 21  Any enterprise which transfers its registered product code to another enterprise to use in violation of the provisions of Article 9 of these Rules shall be ordered to make correction within a time limit by the code competent department, and shall be imposed a fine of 5000 yuan simultaneously.

Article 22  Anyone who starts using a cancelled product code without approval in violation of the provisions of Paragraph 2 of Article 12 of these Rules shall be ordered to make correction within a time limit by the code competent department, and shall be imposed a fine of 5000 yuan if he refuses to make correction.

Article 23  Anyone who engages in code printing business without applying for a qualification certificate of printing to the code competent department in violation of the provisions of Article 17 of these Rules shall be imposed a fine of 1 to 3 times of his illegal gains.

Article 24  Any working person of the code competent department who abuses his powers, neglects his duties or plays irregularities for favoritism shall be imposed administrative penalty by his competent department, and shall be investigated for criminal responsibilities if his act constitutes a crime.

Chapter Five   Supplementary Provisions