The Ministry of Commerce restarts the application for direct sales license? Thinking too much!
In the absence of attention in the industry, the official website of the Ministry of Commerce has updated the information on administrative licensing matters, of which No. 18009 is "Enrollment and Approval of Direct Sales Enterprises and their Branches". The official website also lists the specific "service guide" for this administrative licensing matter, listing the service process and required information clearly and comprehensively, and also providing electronic document downloads of relevant document templates and relevant information forms.
The Ministry of Commerce has interpreted this change in the approval of direct sales enterprises by some people in the market as "the application for reopening of direct sales licenses" and has swear to announce that this move means "the spring of direct sales industry is coming", "the direct sales industry is about to break the ice"... Many relevant industry personnel have also called "Knowledge Economy" to inquire about the authenticity of this information.
The Chinese direct sales industry is understandable to the Ministry of Commerce’s reopening application for direct sales license, but before things are clear, there is no need to listen to the wind and rain, and spread rumors. It is very simple to verify the authenticity of the news, after all, the Ministry of Commerce left a special consultation phone number on its official website.
"Knowledge Economy" magazine called the Foreign Investment Department of the Ministry of Commerce, which was responsible for the application for direct foreign investment sales license, but no one answered the call; then called the Market Operation and Consumption Promotion Department, which was responsible for the application for direct domestic investment sales license. The staff who connected the connection asked the question "Can the domestic enterprise start applying for direct sales license now?" said " not received this information in "; for "when will the application for direct sales license be opened", the staff of the Ministry of Commerce said, " does not have the information in this regard for the time being". The official answer is very standard, simple and clear.
Those companies that look forward to restarting their application for direct sales licenses are expected to continue waiting. This magazine contacted several potential license application companies, and they also confirmed that through consultation, it is impossible to start applying for a direct sales license at present.
Why does a small approval change lead to such a big misunderstanding? In addition to the stolen storm of the perverted people, it is also a coincidence in the timing of the Ministry of Commerce’s announcement.
In February 2022, the "Notice on Comprehensive Implementation of the Management of List of Administrative Licensing Matters" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") issued by the General Office of the State Council clearly pointed out that the comprehensive implementation of the management of list of administrative licensing matters is an important measure to deepen the reform of " deregulation, regulation and service " to optimize the business environment. The list of attachments to the content of the "Notice" has a total of 996 items, of which item 429 is "the establishment and change approval of direct sales enterprises and their branches." At that time, some industry insiders believed that the "Notice" might be a signal to restart the application for direct sales licenses and other matters.
However, the facts have proved that publishing the list and publicizing specific administrative matters is only a routine work of relevant departments. The specific implementation of each administrative matter also requires specific analysis.
The "Evaluation and Approval of Establishment and Change of Direct Sales Enterprises and their Branches" announced by the Ministry of Commerce includes a total of 3 sub-items: 1, Direct Sales Business License (Setting up a Direct Sales Enterprise); 2. Establish branches of direct sales enterprises; 3. Changes in major matters of direct sales enterprises. The specific service procedures and terms of the three projects of have not changed substantially from before 2019. We can also understand that this is a routine public announcement. At least until the " Direct Sales Management Regulations " and "The Regulations on Prohibition of Pyramid Selling" have not changed, there will be no fundamental changes in this type of approval.
In fact, the update of the "Setting Up, Change Approval of Direct Sales Enterprises and their Branches" on the official website of the Ministry of Commerce was in July 2021, which means that the work of the latter two sub-projects was underway at that time, but the industry did not notice this change at that time. The reporter of "Knowledge Economy" also noticed the results of some corresponding matters - for example, company canceled and a large number of branches, and some companies changed shareholders, or even company names.
"Knowledge Economy" reporter found that the Ministry of Commerce began to open direct sales enterprises in 2021 and the changes in major matters were also forced by the market.
On January 8, 2019, 13 departments including the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Commerce and other 13 departments carried out a 100-day joint rectification of the chaos in the "health care" market across the country, and China's direct sales industry entered a period of major rectification. On February 14, 2019, when the Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng officially responded to a reporter's question, he said that "the direct sales related approval and filing has been suspended", returned all license application materials for the company and asked the company to go to the designated bank to return the deposit, interrupting all license application procedures... The application for direct sales license was pressed.
paused for a while, and it has been nearly 4 years in a flash.
According to the 9th issue of "Knowledge Economy" magazine, "Report of 50 Direct Sales and Unsuccessful Enterprises for Direct Sales and Applications" , there are 50 license plate companies that have been announced by the Ministry of Commerce's direct sales information management system. Since 2019, 4 companies have changed their names, 20 companies have changed their legal persons; 30% of companies have changed their registered capital, of which 7 have been lower than the minimum funding requirement for license plate application of 80 million yuan; 5 companies have been cancelled or revoked their business licenses, 3 companies have abnormal operations, and 1 involves bankruptcy review case. , a group of once ambitious brand-name companies, are now in a mess.
direct sales companies are not easy to have. According to the 10th issue of "Knowledge Economy" magazine, , "2022 China Direct Sales Enterprise Development Status Report" statistics, the total performance of Chinese direct sales companies is expected to be only about 100 billion yuan, which is more than 50% lower than the performance high before 2018; among the 89 direct sales companies that have left , 16 have completely abandoned or temporarily suspended their direct sales business, and several direct sales companies are even following the withdrawal process.
In this market wailing, some companies are not allowed to continue to survive, such as closing some branches. But these companies soon discovered that closing branches is not something they can close as soon as they want! Because these branches and service outlets are all direct sales area certificates applied for by the Ministry of Commerce, they are all registered, and any changes require approval and re-registration. However, since the Ministry of Commerce suspended the application for direct sales licenses, the work of the Ministry on direct sales filing has also been suspended. Although many direct sales companies have adopted the method of taking action first and then reporting, they still do not comply with the regulations and are not at ease. Under the appeal and request of many companies, the Ministry of Commerce reopened relevant filing services for direct sales enterprises, which led to the issuance of the entry "Establishment and Change of Direct Sales Enterprises and their Branches".
The Chinese direct sales industry has been paying attention to two major topics in recent years: First, when will the application for a direct sales license be restarted? Second, when will the two "Regulations" on direct sales be revised? Some people familiar with the government service process believe that the end of this year and the beginning of next year may be a good window period.
Relevant people believe that at present, it is difficult for relevant functional departments to issue major matters. However, some departmental teams may be adjusted by the end of this year and the beginning of next year, and different leaders will have different views and practices. The newly appointed department leaders are facing a long-term work, and these legacy problems always need to be solved, so companies in need can seize these opportunities to respond to legitimate demands to relevant functional departments; compared with domestic capital, foreign-funded enterprises have an advantage in communication, that is, they can also communicate with corresponding functional departments in China through their own business departments to respond to the needs of the enterprises.
