Price Supervision and Inspection

Price Supervision and Inspection
(I) Inspecting authorities
The pricing authorities of the people's governments at or above the county level shall supervise and inspect pricing activities in accordance with the law, and impose administrative penalties on pricing acts that violate the Pricing Law.
(II) When conducting price supervision and inspection, pricing authorities may exercise the following functions and powers:
(1) To inquire with the parties or relevant persons and require them to provide evidential documents and other information related to illegal pricing acts;
(2) To inquire and copy accounting books, bills, vouchers, documents, and other information related to illegal pricing acts, and verify bank information related to illegal pricing acts;
(3) To check the property related to illegal pricing acts, and if necessary, order the parties to suspend relevant business operations; and
(4) To register and preserve any evidence that may be lost or difficult to obtain in accordance with the law, and prohibit the parties or relevant persons from transferring, concealing, or destroying such evidence.
(III) Obligations of Business Operators in Price Inspection
During inspection and supervision by the pricing authority, a business operator shall provide their accounting books, bills, vouchers, documents, and other information necessary for price supervision and inspection.
(IV) Precautions for government pricing staff
Government pricing staff shall not use any legally obtained documents or information for any purpose other than price management in accordance with the law or disclose the trade secret of the parties.
(V) Social supervision
Consumer organizations, workers' price supervision organizations, residents' committees, villagers' committees, and other organizations and consumers shall have the right to conduct social supervision over pricing acts. Government pricing authorities shall give full play to the role of the people in price supervision. Press organizations shall have the right to supervise the price by public opinion. The pricing authorities shall establish a system for reporting illegal pricing acts.
In addition, any entity or individual shall have the right to report illegal pricing acts. The pricing authorities shall encourage such reporting and be responsible for keeping them confidential.