The China Home Appliance Maintenance Association has released a circular requiring 20 companies to immediately change their pricing guidelines on the electronics they sell.

China's government agencies issued the "Stipulation on Marked Prices for Home Appliance Maintenance Services" on January 1, 2006. In a recent investigation of 246 home appliance enterprises across the country, CHAMA found that only 57.7% of them have acted according to the stipulations, while the rest offer opaque pricing for their services. This type of opaque activity can lead to fraud and consumer complaints, so CHAMA wants to enforce the rules before too many consumers fall prey.

CHAMA chose to focus first on the twenty biggest firms, and they include the Consumer Electronics Department of Philips China, Hitachi Shanghai Home Appliance Company, Gree Shanxi Office and Kelon Jinan Company.

According to Liu Xiumin, vice director of CHAMA, all these companies must meet relevant requirements by the end of this year or they will be severely punished. Liu declined to comment on what sort of punishment the firms may face.