Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on several issues concerning the trial of cases by Internet courts

In order to regulate litigation activities in Internet courts, protect the legitimate rights and interests of parties and other litigation participants, and ensure fair and efficient trial of cases, in accordance with the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, the Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China and other laws, and in light of the actual trial work of people's courts, the following provisions are made on issues related to the trial of cases in Internet courts.

Article 1 Internet courts try cases online, and the proceedings such as case acceptance, service, mediation, evidence exchange, pre-trial preparation, trial, and sentencing should generally be completed online.

According to the application of the parties or the need for the trial of the case, the Internet court may decide to complete part of the litigation process offline.

Article 2 The following cases of first instance that should be accepted by the basic people's courts in the areas under the centralized jurisdiction of the Beijing, Guangzhou and Hangzhou Internet courts:

(1) Disputes arising from signing or performing online shopping contracts through e-commerce platforms;

(2) Disputes over network service contracts that are signed and performed on the Internet;

(3) Financial loan contract disputes and small loan contract disputes where the signing and performance of the acts are completed on the Internet;

(4) Disputes over copyright or adjacent rights of works first published on the Internet;

(5) Disputes arising from infringement of copyright or adjacent rights of works published or disseminated online on the Internet;

(6) Internet domain name ownership, infringement and contract disputes;

(7) Disputes arising from infringement of others' personal rights, property rights and other civil rights and interests on the Internet;

(8) Product liability disputes arising from product defects in products purchased through e-commerce platforms that infringe upon the personal and property rights of others;

(9) Internet public interest litigation cases filed by procuratorial organs;

(10) Administrative disputes arising from administrative acts such as Internet information service management, Internet commodity trading and related service management undertaken by administrative organs;

(11) Other Internet civil and administrative cases designated by the people's court at a higher level for jurisdiction.

Article 3 The parties may, within the scope of disputes over contracts and other property rights and interests as determined in Article 2 of these Provisions, have jurisdiction over the Internet court that has actual contact with the dispute as agreed in accordance with law.

Where e-commerce operators, network service providers, etc. conclude jurisdiction agreements with users in the form of standard terms, they shall comply with the provisions of laws and judicial interpretations on standard terms.

Article 4 Appeals against judgments and rulings made by the Beijing Internet Court shall be heard by the Beijing No. 4 Intermediate People's Court, but appeals over Internet copyright ownership disputes, infringement disputes and Internet domain name disputes shall be heard by the Beijing Intellectual Property Court.

Appeals against judgments and rulings made by the Guangzhou Internet Court shall be heard by the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, but appeals over Internet copyright ownership disputes, infringement disputes and Internet domain name disputes shall be heard by the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court.

The appeals of the parties to the judgments and rulings made by the Hangzhou Internet Court shall be heard by the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court.

Article 5 The Internet court shall build an Internet litigation platform (hereinafter referred to as the litigation platform) as a special platform for the court to handle cases and the parties and other participants in litigation to carry out litigation acts. Litigation acts made through the litigation platform shall have legal effect.

The data involved in the trial of cases required by the Internet court shall be provided by e-commerce platform operators, network service providers, and relevant state organs, and orderly access to the litigation platform, which will be verified online, fixed in real time, and managed securely by the Internet court. The storage and use of the data involved in the litigation platform shall comply with the provisions of the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China and other laws and regulations.

Article 6 Where parties and other participants in litigation use the litigation platform to carry out litigation acts, they shall complete identity authentication through online means such as certificate and license comparison, biometric identification or national unified identity authentication platform authentication, and obtain a special account for logging in to the litigation platform.

The act of using a special account to log in to the litigation platform shall be regarded as the act of the certificated person himself, except that the system error is caused by technical reasons of the litigation platform, or the certificated person can prove that the account of the litigation platform has been stolen.

Article 7 The Internet court receives the prosecution materials submitted by the plaintiff online, and within seven days after receiving the materials, makes the following processing online:

(A) meet the requirements for prosecution, register and file and serve the case acceptance notice, litigation fee payment notice, evidence notice and other litigation documents.

(2) If the submitted materials do not meet the requirements, a rectification notice shall be issued in time, and the acceptance time shall start again the next day after receiving the rectification materials; If the plaintiff fails to make corrections as required within the specified time limit, the prosecution materials shall be returned for processing.

(3) If the conditions for prosecution are not met, and the plaintiff has no objection after explanation, the prosecution materials shall be returned; If the plaintiff insists on continuing to bring a suit, an order shall be made to reject the case according to law.

Article 8 After accepting a case, the Internet court may notify the defendant and the third party to conduct case association and identity verification through the litigation platform through the mobile phone number, fax, email, instant messaging account provided by the plaintiff.

The defendant and the third party shall understand the case information through the litigation platform, receive and submit litigation materials, and carry out litigation acts.

Article 9 Where the Internet court organizes the exchange of online evidence, the parties shall upload and import the online electronic data into the litigation platform, or upload the offline evidence through scanning, copying, transcription and other means of electronic processing to the litigation platform for proof, and can also use the electronic data that has been imported into the litigation platform to prove their own claims.

Article 10 Where the parties and other litigation participants submit by electronic processing the litigation materials such as identity certificate, copy of business license, power of attorney, identity certificate of legal representative, and evidentiary materials such as documentary evidence, appraisal opinions, and record of investigation through technical means, they shall be deemed to meet the requirements of the original form after being examined and approved by the Internet court. If the other party objects to the authenticity of the above materials and has reasonable reasons, the Internet court shall require the party to provide the original.

Article 11 Where the parties raise objections to the authenticity of the electronic data, the Internet court shall review and judge the authenticity of the electronic data generation, collection, storage and transmission process in light of the cross-examination, and focus on the following:

(a) electronic data generation, collection, storage, transmission depends on the computer system hardware, software environment is safe and reliable;

(2) Whether the generation subject and time of the electronic data are clear, and whether the content of the presentation is clear, objective and accurate;

(3) Whether the storage and custody media of electronic data are clear, and whether the storage methods and means are appropriate;

(4) Whether the subject, tool and method of electronic data extraction and fixing are reliable, and whether the extraction process can be reproduced;

(5) whether the contents of the electronic data are added, deleted, modified or incomplete;

(6) Whether electronic data can be verified in a particular form.

If the electronic data submitted by the parties can prove its authenticity through electronic signature, trusted time stamp, hash check, block chain and other evidence collection, fixing and tamper-proof technical means or through the electronic forensics depository platform authentication, the Internet court shall confirm.

A party may request a person with specialized knowledge to submit an opinion on an electronic data technology issue. The Internet court may, upon the application of the parties or in accordance with its functions and powers, entrust the authentication of the authenticity of the electronic data or obtain other relevant evidence for verification.

Article 12 The Internet court shall hold hearings by means of online video. If there are special circumstances that really need to be identified in court, check the original, check the physical object, etc., the Internet court may decide to hold the session offline, but other proceedings should still be completed online.

Article 13 The Internet court may, depending on the circumstances, decide to simplify trial procedures in the following ways:

(1) If the identity verification of the parties, the notification of rights and obligations, and the declaration of trial discipline have been completed online before the hearing, they may not be repeated during the hearing;

(2) If the parties have completed the exchange of evidence online, for the undisputed evidence, the judge may no longer provide evidence or cross-examine evidence after explaining it in the trial;

(3) With the consent of the parties, the parties' statements, court investigations, court debates and other trial sessions may be combined. For simple civil cases, the trial can be conducted directly around the claim or the elements of the case.

Article 14 The Internet court shall apply the relevant provisions of the Court Rules of the People's Courts of the People's Republic of China according to the characteristics of online trial. In addition to the reasons clearly identified as network failure, equipment damage, power interruption or force majeure, the parties who do not attend the online trial on time shall be regarded as "refusing to appear in court", and those who quit without authorization during the trial shall be regarded as "withdrawing from court midway", which shall be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, the Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China and relevant judicial interpretations.

Article 15 With the consent of the parties, the Internet court shall serve the litigation documents and the evidential materials submitted by the parties through electronic means such as the China Trial Process Information Disclosure website, litigation platform, mobile phone SMS, fax, email, instant messaging account, etc.

Where the parties do not explicitly agree, but have agreed to apply electronic service in litigation in the event of a dispute, or accept the completed electronic service by replying to receive, making corresponding litigation acts, etc., and do not explicitly disagree with electronic service, they may be deemed to agree to electronic service.

After informing the parties of their rights and obligations and obtaining their consent, the Internet court may electronically serve judgment documents. If a party requires a paper version of the judgment document, the Internet court shall provide it.

Article 16 When conducting electronic service, an Internet court shall confirm to the parties the specific mode and address of electronic service, and inform them of the scope of application of electronic service, effectiveness, mode of change of service address and other service matters that need to be informed.

If the recipient does not provide a valid electronic service address, the Internet court may take as the priority service address the mobile phone number, email address, instant messaging account and other commonly used electronic addresses that can be confirmed as the recipient's own daily active status within the past three months.

Article 17 Where the Internet court serves the recipient with an electronic address voluntarily provided or confirmed by the recipient, the service shall be deemed to be served when the service information reaches the recipient's specific system.

If the Internet court serves the person at his or her usual electronic address or other electronic address that can be obtained, it shall determine whether the service is completed according to the following circumstances:

(1) If the recipient replies that he has received the materials, or makes a corresponding action according to the contents of the service, it shall be deemed to have completed effective service.

(2) If the media system of the recipient gives feedback that the recipient has read it, or there is other evidence to prove that the recipient has received it, effective service is presumed to have been completed, except that the recipient can prove that there is a media system error, the delivery address is not owned or used by the recipient, and the delivery content is not received by the recipient.

Where effective service is completed, the Internet court shall make an electronic service certificate. The electronic service certificate has the effect of service acknowledgement.

Article 18 For simple civil cases that need to be served with clear facts and clear rights and obligations, the Internet court may apply summary procedures for trial.

Article 19 In the online trial of a case in an Internet court, where the trial personnel, judge assistants, clerks, parties and other litigation participants confirm the mediation agreement, record, electronic service voucher and other litigation materials through online confirmation, electronic signature and other online means, it is deemed to meet the requirements of the "signature" of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China.

Article 20 For cases tried online by Internet courts, voice recognition technology may be used to generate electronic transcripts synchronously in litigation links such as mediation, evidence exchange, court hearing, and collegiality. The electronic record, when verified online, has the same legal effect as the written record.

Article 21 An Internet court shall use the litigation platform to generate electronic files simultaneously with the case to form electronic files. Where all the paper case files have been converted into electronic files, electronic files may be used instead of paper files for appeal transfer and filing of case files.

Article 22 Where a party appeals a case tried by an Internet court, the court of second instance shall, in principle, try the case online. These Provisions shall apply with reference to the online trial rules of the Court of second Instance.

Article 23 These Provisions shall come into force as of September 7, 2018. If the judicial interpretation previously issued by the Supreme People's Court is inconsistent with these Provisions, these Provisions shall prevail.