Recently, the Guangzhou Administration for Market Regulation issued the List of Mitigation and Exemption of Administrative Law Enforcement in Guangzhou Market Regulation System (2025), aiming to precisely empower enterprise development and continuously optimize the law-based business environment.
First, the scope of items has been significantly expanded. Giving full play to its role as a major force and pace-setter among China’s first-tier cities, Guangzhou has greatly expanded the number of mitigation and exemption items from the original 60 to 116, covering key law enforcement areas such as market access, transaction order, food safety, intellectual property rights and product quality. With an expansion rate of 93.3%, the revised list fully addresses the needs of market entities for error tolerance and correction, and fosters a relaxed environment for nurturing new-quality productive forces.
Second, the standards for law enforcement discretion have been effectively standardized. Based on big data from the “Law Enforcement Online System of Guangzhou Administration for Market Regulation”, the authority conducted an in-depth analysis of 19,386 cases of penalty mitigation and exemption across the city from 2022 to 2024. Items were sorted out according to their application frequency, forming four sub-lists, namely “penalty exemption, reduced penalty, mitigated penalty and exemption from mandatory measures”. Meanwhile, the applicable circumstances and discretion ranges for each item have been refined and quantified. While strictly aligning with national and provincial regulations, the list has been optimized in light of Guangzhou’s law enforcement practices, effectively avoiding problems such as inconsistent penalties for similar cases and profit-driven law enforcement.
Third, supporting flexible supervision measures have been improved. It is clarified that mitigation and exemption do not equal the “legalization” of illegal acts. While granting error tolerance space to enterprises, follow-up supervision has been strengthened through flexible regulatory methods including persuasion and education, guidance and demonstration, regulatory interviews, as well as rectification and re-inspection. This ensures a complete regulatory chain and achieves the unity of political, legal and social effects of administrative law enforcement.
