Shanghai Legislates to Curb Excessive Packaging, Violators Face Fines of Up to 100,000 Yuan

[ppzhan abstract]

Shanghai is exploring local legislation to restrict excessive packaging of goods. Yesterday, the "Several Provisions of Shanghai Municipality on the Reduction of Commodity Packaging (Draft)" submitted to the current session of the Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee for deliberation clearly stipulated that in the future, if goods sold by a seller are found to be excessively packaged, the seller may face a fine of up to 100,000 yuan — starting with strict control of the sales stage to force manufacturers to stop over-packaging their goods.

The root cause of excessive packaging lies with the manufacturers. So why not start there instead of turning to the sales stage? Chen Zhaofeng, deputy director of the Urban Construction and Environmental Protection Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, said that more than 80% of the goods circulating on the Shanghai market are produced elsewhere, and local regulations cannot directly bind them. But by starting with the sales stage, such constraints can be transmitted to those manufacturers: if they want to enter the Shanghai market, their product packaging must comply with Shanghai's rules.

[Live recording] Shanghai is a large, open market where goods not produced locally account for a very large proportion. Only by supervising the sales stage and transmitting that pressure back to the production stage can effective control be achieved, creating a general constraint on commodity packaging.

Of course, such constraints apply equally to local manufacturers in Shanghai. Under the provisions, sellers and suppliers should explicitly agree that commodity packaging must comply with national mandatory requirements; if it does not, the seller may refuse to take delivery as agreed in the contract. If consumers find that commodity packaging violates mandatory requirements, they may ask the seller to stop selling it and report it to the quality and technical supervision department. During deliberation, committee member Wang Guanchang suggested that a further sentence be added here to make the regulation more workable and to protect consumers' rights.

[Live recording] He has been given this right — but how is this right to be exercised? There should be another sentence after it: the municipal quality supervision department should investigate and handle the matter promptly and give the whistleblower timely feedback on the outcome. With this sentence in place, the right can be implemented.

The Draft Provisions also make clear that the municipal quality and technical supervision department is the competent authority, responsible for overseeing the reduction of commodity packaging throughout the process, thus avoiding the drawbacks of segmented management in which everyone is in charge yet no one manages well. Sellers who violate the provisions are subject to fines ranging from 2,000 to 100,000 yuan. Committee member Zhang Jinkang argued that such provisions are too general and that detailed penalty rules should be introduced as soon as possible.

[Live recording] The gap between 2,000 and 100,000 is fairly large. If a single item is fined 2,000 yuan, that is very high; but for a whole batch — say, a train carload of Wuliangye, all of it over-packaged — you would still only fine 100,000 yuan? If it is written this way, it could put future enforcement in a passive position. Having something more detailed as soon as possible would make it easier to apply.

At present, the state has issued mandatory standards limiting excessive packaging only for food, cosmetics and moon cakes. For other commodities, there is still no national standard on how to define excessive packaging. The Draft Provisions require that the municipal quality and technical supervision department may, together with relevant administrative departments and industry associations, formulate guiding standards for commodity packaging.

— This article is reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362058.html