State Administration for Market Regulation: Will impose severe penalties in accordance with laws and regulations for practices such as disguised extension of payment terms.

On September 14, the State Council Information Office held a routine policy briefing to introduce work related to strengthening the governance of the problem of difficulties small and medium-sized enterprises face in collecting payments. Zhou Weijun, director of the Credit Supervision Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said that the introduction of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law helps improve the survival and development conditions of small and medium-sized enterprises and also helps promote operators in establishing correct concepts of competition. Regarding the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, next, the State Administration for Market Regulation will continue to strengthen coordination, enhance collaboration with departments such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the People's Bank of China, and establish a information-sharing working mechanism. For those large enterprises that are complained about more frequently by small and medium-sized enterprises, the State Administration for Market Regulation will, together with relevant departments, comprehensively use methods such as regulatory talks and mediation to urge rectification, and resolve issues such as difficulties small and medium-sized enterprises face in collecting payments through multi-party coordination; at the same time, the State Administration for Market Regulation will continue to keep complaint and reporting channels open, and for egregious practices such as ambiguous calculation points for payment periods and using commercial bills and electronic vouchers to disguisedly extend payment periods, once verified, it will impose severe penalties in accordance with laws and regulations.