Administrative Actions

Legal Sanctions Against Breach of the Law

• The Import and Export Ordinance, Reserved Commodities Ordinance , Ozone Layer Protection Ordinance and their subsidiary regulations, provide for regulation and control of import of articles into Hong Kong, export of articles from Hong Kong, and any matter incidental to or connected with the foregoing.
• The Import and Export Ordinance (IEO) provides for a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine and seven years' imprisonment for any breach of the Import and Export (Strategic Commodities) Regulations. For more details, please refer to the Strategic Commodities Control System Website.
• For most other breaches or contraventions for IEO or its regulations, the maximum penalty is a fine of HK$500,000 and two years' imprisonment.
• The Reserved Commodities Ordinance provides for a maximum penalty of a fine of HK$100,000 and imprisonment for two years. The licensing requirements for ozone depleting substances are governed by the Ozone Layer Protection Ordinance which provides for a maximum penalty of a fine of HK$1,000,000 and imprisonment for two years.

Administrative Actions

• The Trade and Industry Department (TID) may institute administrative actions against the traders / registered business irrespective of any legal action which may be instituted against them.  These administrative actions may involve, but shall not necessarily be confined to, any or all of the following:
  • suspension and revocation of any registration granted under the Textiles Trader Registration Scheme without refund of the registration fee, and the refusal to renew any registration;
  • suspension of all licensing facilities and all certification facilities;
  • rejection of a licence/certificate of origin application;
  • or in the event that a licence/certificate of origin has already been issued, cancellation, suspension and/or revocation of the licence/certificate of origin.

The TID does not accept any responsibility that may arise from the administrative actions so taken.