AnJie Law Firm (LexBlog China)

Background On 1 November 2021, the Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China (“PIPL”) took effect and became the first Chinese law dedicated to protecting the personal information rights of individuals. However,     due to a lack of implementation regulations and clarity, many companies face a situation where they are unsure how to comply with the PIPL in some areas....

On 7 July 2022, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC“) issued the Measures for the Security Assessment of  Outbound Data Transfers (“Measures“), which will take effect on 1 September 2022. The Measures underwent three rounds of public consultation in 2017, 2019 and 2021 before they were finalised. In its final form, the Measures contain 20 articles. We have identified 11 topics within the

China Business Law Journal, a well-known international law journal, published the Deals of the Year 2021 on February 22, 2022. With its constant reporting of the China market, China Business Law Journal selected the deals that stand out as the Deals of the Year 2021, in terms of the overall significance, complexity, and innovative nature...

Recently, UK legal publisher Lexology officially released the latest edition of Getting the Deal Through: Insurance Litigation 2022. The book brings together top lawyers and experts in the field of insurance litigation from 15 jurisdictions around the world to share their latest litigation experiences and predictions for the future. AnJie Partners Zhan Hao, Wang Xuelei...

Recently, UK legal publisher Lexology officially released the latest edition of Getting the Deal Through: Insurance Litigation 2022. The book brings together top lawyers and experts in the field of insurance litigation from 15 jurisdictions around the world to share their latest litigation experiences and predictions for the future. AnJie Partners Zhan Hao, Wang Xuelei...

What are China’s merger review priorities? [1] China’s merger control regime has been a topic of discussion for some time now. Some commentators interpret Chinese merger control as being influenced by political factors; namely, more than encourage competition, it is yielded by authorities to stop foreign competitors from flooding China’s market. [2] But is that...

On November 19, 2021, China State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (“SASAC”) of the State Council released the “Circular on Strengthening the Management of Financing Guarantees of Central State-owned Enterprises” (the ” Circular “) (Guo Zi Fa Cai Ping Gui [2021] No. 75) On January 4, 2022, SASAC released an explanation to clarify the queries...

According to Article 271 of Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), parties may submit foreign-related disputes to “foreign arbitration institutions” outside Mainland China (“foreign” here encompasses Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, in terms of jurisdiction only). However, the statutory law of the PRC is silent on whether parties may agree to submit non-foreign-related...

In China, workplace accidents and deaths have steadily declined since the mid 2000s[1]. Although rarer than before, regretfully, workplace accidents causing death in China continue to occur on average 75 times per day[2]. Oftentimes, such fatal accidents immediately result in a shutdown order from the local municipal safety bureau (a “Stop-work Order”) to prevent further...

In China, workplace accidents and deaths have steadily declined since the mid 2000s[1]. Although rarer than before, regretfully, workplace accidents causing death in China continue to occur on average 75 times per day[2]. Oftentimes, such fatal accidents immediately result in a shutdown order from the local municipal safety bureau (a “Stop-work Order”) to prevent further...

Background China has been continuously strengthening and developing data security rules over the last decade. One of the hallmarks of this trend is increasing regulation over outbound cross-border data flows. Against this background, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) issued the Draft Measures for Security Assessment for Cross-Border Data Transfers (the draft measures) on 29...

Standard-Essential Patents (“SEPs”) are patents which protect technology essential to compatibility with technical industry standards. To avoid abuse by patent holders, SEPs are typically required to be licensed on Fair Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms. However, what constitutes a FRAND rate is often unclear and can lead to protracted negotiations, hold-ups, and...

Nearly six years and a half since four Ningbo magnetic material manufacturers (“Plaintiffs”) brought lawsuits against Hitachi Metals, Ltd. (“HML”), China’s Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court (“Court”) finally entered its first instance rulings on 23 April 2021, in which the Court found in favour of the Plaintiffs and ruled that the refusal to license patents by...

China’s Supreme Court made a final judgment applying HCCH 1965 Service Convention to serve a Japanese litigant by post in 2019, under the situation where the government of Japan opposed to postal service but the Japanese litigant agreed to accept it. I. Overview On 22 Nov. 2019, the Supreme People’s Court of China (“the SPC”)...

REGULATIONS CAC seeks comments on revising Administrative Measures for Internet Information Services On January 8, 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) issued the Administrative Measures for Internet Information Services (Revised Draft for Comments) (the “Draft for Comment”) for public comments by February 7, 2021. The Draft for Comment applies to any organization or individual...

REGULATIONS CAC seeks comments on scope of necessary personal information required for 38 types of Apps On December 1, 2020, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) issued the Scope of Necessary Personal Information Required for Common Types of Mobile Internet Applications (Draft for Comment) (the “Draft for Comment”) for public comments by December 16, 2020. The Draft...

Let’s talk tech and Chinese money. Since antiquity, China had led the world with its adoption of cutting-edge currency Today, there is an immense amount of interest surrounding China’s new digital yuan (“DCEP” – Digital Currency Electronic Payment). However, China’s history of currency innovation goes back to ancient times. Unlike Roman coins, ancient Chinese coins...

by Samuel Yang, AnJie Law Firm and Practical Law China An overview of the regulation of cloud computing in China. This note covers the characteristics of cloud computing, including its risks and benefits, the regulatory framework for cloud computing in China and key issues in negotiating cloud computing services. Scope of this note What is...

 Author:Hannibal El-Mohtar   Agnes Wang   (Attribution: Ravi Kant) I. How can Hong Kong and foreign insurers currently sell insurance to MainlandChina? Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, many Mainland residents find foreign insurance policies more attractive than those found in the mainland and continue to cross borders to get their hands on them. Take Hong Kong for example. The...

The automobile industry has been under the radar of China’s antitrust enforcement for a number of years. Since 2014, the agency had successively issued fines against many players in the automobile supply chain, including auto parts manufacturers, and motor vehicle suppliers and distributors. By November of 2019, the aggregate antitrust fine in the car sector...

Author: Samuel Yang, Nicholas Blackmore China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, recently enacted a Civil Code which will come into force on 1 January 2021. The Civil Code is a major landmark in Chinese legal history – it is the first comprehensive codification of the civil laws of the People’s Republic of China, which has...

Author: Hannibal El-Mohtar (Photo attribution: Karolina Grabowska)   Despite the tortuous path ahead for the US 2020 election campaigns, and the trials and tribulations of this year, the US-China Phase 1 Trade Deal (the “P1 Deal”) remains in place.[1] Although commitments under the P1 Deal are only between China and the US, international trade law...

Authors: Song Ying,  Yang Yuhui, Hannibal El-Mohtar (Attribution: George Becker) Antitrust law is growing in importance in China. Penalties from Chinese antitrust cases continue to grow, and Chinese regulators are known for taking swift action against conduct they believe is anticompetitive. In February 2015, Qualcomm paid almost $1 billion US to end an investigation by...

Authors : Wan Jia, Hannibal El-Mohtar I. Is China’s insurance market worth investing in? It is no secret that China’s insurance industry presents good upside growth opportunities. According to the 2018 Report on Global Insurance and Market Research released by Allianz Group, “Nearly 80% of the total 60 Billion Euros increase in global premiums came...

China’s Luckin Coffee (Luckin), seen as Starbucks’ main contender in the country, has seemingly run short on luck. On May 12, the coffee chain fired its chief executive Jenny Zhiya Qian and chief operating officer Jian Liu. And on May 19, New York’s Nasdaq requested the company to delist from the exchange. These are only...

Authors: Zhan Hao、Wan Jia   In the beginning of 2020, Luckin Coffee event brought the attention from the insurance, legal and security industries to the directors and officers liability insurance policy (“D&O”) in China. In this event, Luckin Coffee, which is listed in the US and called Chinese Starbucks, found trapped in the security fraud scandal, and...

Authors: Michael Gu / Sihui Sun / Grace Wu [1]   Introduction The year 2019 marked the 11th anniversary of the implementation of the Anti-monopoly Law and was also the first full calendar year since the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) took over the role as China’s single centralised antitrust enforcement agency. The SAMR...

Although at the backdrop of Covid-19 outbreak, China’s merger review practice has not been negatively affected. Currently, the average review time is 8 days shorter than that in last year. According to public statistics, the first quarter of 2020 witnessed completed review of 111 filings by China’s antitrust authority, the State Administration for Market Regulation...

Authors: Han Jinwen, Chen Lin   Recently, the Guangzhou Baiyun District People’s Court issued its first judgment with punitive damages for Intellectual Property infringement since the recent amendment to the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China (2019) (hereinafter Trademark Law of the PRC).  The well-known tea brand “HEYTEA” won the case and was awarded RMB 760,000.  This...

2019 is the first year since the re-organization of China’s antitrust enforcement agency was completed. New legislations and enforcement actions during the past year have thus attracted much attention from practitioners and in-house counsels, with a view to gaining an insight into the enforcement trends and priorities, if any, of the new agency. This article...