CHINA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Siyuan Liu, Wei Wang and Huanhuan Yu, Jingtian & Gongcheng
Integrated Liability Framework: Co-Ordination Across Civil, Administrative and Criminal Proceedings Collective actions inherently involve the complex inter- play of multiple interests. To achieve thorough dis- pute resolution and finality, practice has increasingly demonstrated the trend of co-ordinated co-operation across civil, administrative and criminal processes – forming a three-dimensional liability framework. The SPC, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the CSRC have jointly issued opinions emphasising the importance of unified standards in enforcement, consistent interpretation of legal provisions, and the alignment of policies across institutions. The courts may also ask securities regu- lators to issue expert determinations on securities- specific issues as a basis for factual findings. Recent securities disputes have seen the courts request regu- latory files and consult factual opinions of the CSRC. These policy orientations reflect not only the regula- tors’ and judiciary’s “zero-tolerance” stance toward securities violations, but also a forward-looking phi- losophy of “addressing problems at their source and preventing risks in advance”. The approach under- scores the dual objectives of remedying violations and proactively safeguarding the integrity of the capital market. Emergence of Post-Collective Action Derivative Disputes Collective actions primarily resolve liability between investors and tortfeasors. After the conclusion of col- lective actions, liable tortfeasors frequently pursue contribution claims against one another, giving rise to derivative disputes in the aftermath of collective proceedings. A new challenge for Chinese courts is how to prevent conflicts between the judgments of prior collective actions and subsequent derivative actions. In 2024, following the conclusion of an ordi- nary representative action arising from the Wuyang
Bond case, the securities company, which had under- taken liability, initiated recourse action against other responsible parties. Intense debate ensued over how the factual findings and outcomes of the earlier collec- tive action should be interpreted in the recourse pro- ceedings. In 2025, after the administrative settlement in the Essence case, securities firms and accounting firms, which had undertaken liability, likewise initiated recourse actions. In the Amethystum Storage case, following advance compensation, the compensat- ing entities initiated recourse actions against more than 40 defendants. These developments all raised questions regarding the co-ordination between prior collective actions and subsequent derivative actions, and this issue has now become a new focal point in Chinese collective action practice. Emerging Areas of Collective Actions: Data Compliance and AI Since 2020, the collective action mechanism has been more widely applied in the PRC beyond securities, extending to consumer protection, mass leasehold disputes, and financial product controversies, as well as other arenas. With the advent of the data and arti- ficial intelligence era, Chinese courts have also begun to take note of new categories of potential collective actions. International precedents have drawn par- ticular attention: for example, the Dutch Foundation for Market Information Research filed cross-border collective actions in Germany against TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) for alleged unlawful data collection and use. At the end of 2024, Apple reached a USD95 million settlement in a collective action concerning pri- vacy breaches involving its Siri voice assistant. In the field of AI, in September 2025, US company Anthropic agreed to pay at least USD1.5 billion to resolve copy- right infringement class actions brought against it. These cases have already attracted the attention of leading Chinese technology companies, raising the critical question of whether similar types of collective actions may arise in Chinese judicial practice.
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