The "Provisions of the Supreme People's Court Concerning Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Dispute Cases of Infringement of Personal Rights and Interests Using Information Networks" was adopted at the 1621st meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court on June 23, 2014, and is hereby promulgated. Since October 2014 Come into force on 10th.
Supreme People's Court
August 21, 2014
Legal Interpretation [2014] No. 11
The Supreme People's Court on
Trial of civil dispute cases involving infringement of personal rights and interests by using information networks
Provisions on Several Issues of Applicable Law
(Adopted at the 1621st meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court on June 23, 2014)
In order to correctly hear cases of civil disputes involving the use of information networks to infringe on personal rights and interests, according to the "General Principles of Civil Law of the People's Republic of China", "Tort Liability Law of the People's Republic of China", "Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Strengthening the Protection of Network Information", "Civil Procedures of the People's Republic of China" Law and other legal provisions, combined with trial practice, formulate these provisions.
Article 1 The “civil dispute cases of infringement of personal rights and interests by using information networks” as mentioned in these Provisions refer to dispute cases caused by the use of information networks to infringe on other people’s personal rights and interests such as name rights, name rights, reputation rights, honor rights, portrait rights, and privacy rights.
Article 2 A lawsuit filed for infringement of personal rights and interests by using the information network shall be under the jurisdiction of the people's court at the place where the tort is committed or where the defendant is domiciled.
The place where the infringement is committed includes the location of the computer and other terminal equipment that carried out the alleged infringement, and the place where the result of the infringement occurs includes the domicile of the infringed person.
Article 3 Where the plaintiff sues a network user or network service provider in accordance with the provisions of the second and third paragraphs of Article 36 of the Tort Liability Law, the people's court shall accept the case.
The plaintiff only sues the network user, and if the network user requests to add the suspected infringing network service provider as a co-defendant or a third party, the people's court shall grant permission.
The plaintiff only sues the network service provider, and if the network service provider requests to add a identifiable network user as a co-defendant or a third party, the people's court shall grant permission.
Article 4 Where a plaintiff sues a network service provider, and the network service provider defends that the allegedly infringing information was published by a network user, the people's court may, based on the plaintiff's request and the specific circumstances of the case, order the network service provider to provide the It is possible to determine the name (name), contact information, network address and other information of the network user suspected of infringement.
If the network service provider refuses to provide without justified reasons, the people's court may take measures such as punishment against the network service provider in accordance with the provisions of Article 114 of the Civil Procedure Law.
If the plaintiff requests to add a network user as a defendant based on the information provided by the network service provider, the people's court shall grant permission.
Article 5 According to the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 36 of the Tort Liability Law, if the notice issued by the infringed party to the network service provider in writing or by the network service provider's announcement contains the following contents, the people's court shall determine efficient:
(1) The name (title) and contact information of the notifier;
(2) The network address where necessary measures are required or relevant information sufficient to accurately locate the infringing content;
(3) The reason why the notifier requests deletion of relevant information.
If the notice sent by the infringed party does not meet the above conditions, and the network service provider claims exemption from liability, the people's court shall support it.
Article 6 The people's court shall apply the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 36 of the Tort Liability Law to determine whether the necessary measures such as deletion, blocking, and link disconnection taken by the network service provider are timely. The form and degree of accuracy, the type and degree of network information infringement of rights and interests and other factors are comprehensively judged.
Article 7: Where Internet users whose published information has been deleted, blocked, disconnected, etc., claim that the network service provider bears the responsibility for breach of contract or infringement, and the network service provider defends on the grounds of receiving the notice, the people's court shall support.
If a network user who has been taken measures such as deletion, blocking, or disconnection requests the network service provider to provide the content of the notice, the people's court shall support it.
Article 8 Where the network service provider mistakenly takes measures such as deletion, blocking, and disconnection due to the notice of the notifier, and the network user who has been subjected to the measures requests the notifier to bear the tort liability, the people's court shall support it.
If a network user who has been wrongly taken measures requests the network service provider to take corresponding recovery measures, the people's court shall support it, except for those that cannot be recovered due to technical constraints.
Article 9 The people's court shall comprehensively consider the following factors when determining whether the network service provider "knows" according to the third paragraph of Article 36 of the Tort Liability Law:
(1) Whether the network service provider handles the infringing network information manually or automatically by recommending, ranking, selecting, editing, sorting out, modifying, etc.;
(2) The ability to manage information that the network service provider should have, as well as the nature and method of the service provided and the possibility of causing infringement;
(3) The type and obvious degree of infringement of personal rights and interests by the network information;
(4) The degree of social influence of the network information or the number of views within a certain period of time;
(5) The technical possibility of the network service provider taking measures to prevent infringement and whether it has taken corresponding reasonable measures;
(6) Whether the network service provider has taken corresponding reasonable measures against repeated infringements by the same network user or the same infringement information;
(7) Other factors related to the case.
Article 10 The people's court shall consider the following factors in determining the fault and degree of network users' or network service providers' acts of reposting network information:
(1) The duty of care undertaken by the reprinting entity commensurate with its nature and scope of influence;
(2) The degree to which the reprinted information infringes on the personal rights and interests of others;
(3) Whether any substantive changes have been made to the reprinted information, whether the title of the article has been added or modified, resulting in a serious discrepancy with the content and the possibility of misleading the public.
Article 11 Where network users or network service providers use methods such as slander or slander to damage the public's trust in business entities, lower the social evaluation of their products or services, and business entities request network users or network service providers to bear tort liability, The people's court should support it according to law.
Article 12 Internet users or Internet service providers use the Internet to disclose personal privacy and other personal information such as natural person genetic information, medical records, health examination data, criminal records, home addresses, private activities, etc., causing damage to others, and the infringed party requests its The people's court shall support the tort liability. However, the following circumstances are excluded:
(1) With the written consent of the natural person and disclosed within the agreed scope;
(2) To promote social public interests and within the necessary scope;
(3) Schools, scientific research institutions, etc. are based on public interests for academic research or statistical purposes, with the written consent of natural persons, and the disclosure method is not sufficient to identify specific natural persons;
(4) Information disclosed by natural persons on the Internet or other personal information that has been lawfully disclosed;
(5) Personal information obtained through legal channels;
(6) Laws or administrative regulations provide otherwise.
If a network user or network service provider discloses the personal information specified in Items 4 and 5 of the preceding paragraph in a manner that violates social public interests and social morality, or the disclosure of such information violates the important interests of the obligee that are worthy of protection, the obligee requests the Internet user to Or if the network service provider bears the tort liability, the people's court should support it.
The provisions of this article do not apply to state organs exercising their functions and powers to disclose personal information.
Article 13 A network user or network service provider, based on the information released by a state agency in accordance with its authority, such as a document produced by a state agency or a publicly implemented authority act, has any of the following circumstances, infringes on the personal rights and interests of others, and the infringed party requests infringement: Where a person bears tort liability, the people's court shall support:
(1) The information released by network users or network service providers is inconsistent with the content of the aforementioned information sources;
(2) Network users or network service providers cause misunderstanding by adding insulting content, defamatory information, inappropriate titles, or by adding or deleting information, adjusting structure, changing order, etc.;
(3) The aforementioned sources of information have been publicly corrected, but the network user refuses to correct or the network service provider refuses to correct;
(4) The aforementioned information source has been publicly corrected, and the network user or network service provider still publishes the information before the correction.
Article 14 An agreement between the infringed party and the infringing network user or network service provider that one party pays remuneration and the other party provides services such as deletion, blocking, and link disconnection shall be deemed invalid by the people's court.
If a network user or network service provider who releases the information requests the infringer to bear the tort liability if it tampers with, deletes, or blocks specific network information without authorization, or prevents others from accessing the network information by disconnecting links, the people's court shall support it. Where an act is entrusted by others, the entrusting party and the entrusting party shall bear joint and several liabilities.
Article 15 Hiring, organizing, abetting or helping others to publish or forward network information infringes on the personal rights and interests of others, and if the infringed party requests that the perpetrator bear joint and several liability, the people's court shall support it.
Article 16 Where the people's court judges the infringer to bear the responsibility forms such as apology, elimination of influence or restoration of reputation, it shall be commensurate with the specific method of infringement and the scope of influence caused. If the infringer refuses to perform, the people's court may adopt reasonable methods such as posting announcements on the Internet or publishing judgment documents, and the costs incurred thereby shall be borne by the infringer.
Article 17 Where a network user or network service provider infringes on the personal rights and interests of others, causing property loss or serious mental damage, and the infringed party requests it to bear the liability for compensation in accordance with the provisions of Articles 20 and 22 of the Tort Liability Law, The people's court should support it.
Article 18 The reasonable expenses paid by the infringed party to stop the infringing act may be recognized as the property loss stipulated in Article 20 of the Tort Liability Law. Reasonable expenses include the reasonable expenses of the infringed party or entrusting an agent to investigate and collect evidence of the infringement. According to the request of the parties and the specific circumstances of the case, the people's court may calculate the lawyer's fees that comply with the provisions of the relevant state departments into the scope of compensation.
If the property loss of the infringed person due to the infringement of personal rights and interests or the benefits obtained by the infringer cannot be determined, the people's court may determine the amount of compensation within the scope of 500,000 yuan according to the specific case.
The amount of compensation for mental damage shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of Article 10 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning Determination of Liability for Compensation for Mental Damage in Civil Torts.
Article 19 These Provisions shall apply to the first-instance and second-instance cases being tried by the people's courts after the implementation of these Provisions.
These Provisions do not apply to cases that have been finalized before the implementation of these Provisions, and the parties apply for retrial or decide to retry in accordance with the trial supervision procedures after the implementation of these Provisions.