CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jihong Chen, Zhong Lun Law Firm
For administrative penalties, under the PIPL, the pen - alties for violations may include: • an order of rectification; • warning; • confiscation of illegal earnings; or • the suspension or termination of apps or services. For severe violations, the violator may be fined up to CNY50 million or 5% of its turnover of the previous year at the company level, and the person directly in charge will be fined up to CNY1 million. The com - pany’s business licences and permits may also be revoked. Depending on the nature and severity of the violation, different sanctions and penalties may be imposed by the CSL. Authorities may: • order rectification; • issue warnings; • impose fines on both the enterprise and the directly liable person(s); and • (where the circumstances are serious) suspend the offending business line, order suspension-for-recti - fication, or revoke the relevant business licence or the company’s business licence. The amended CSL materially raises the ceiling for administrative fine to CNY10 million, thereby aligning it with the upper limit already provided in the DSL. The authorities will determine the amount of any fine on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration the severity of the violating acts, infringements of legiti - mate rights and interests on individuals, any adverse impact on society, etc. The administrative authori - ties may, in accordance with law, formulate discre - tion benchmarks for administrative penalties to regu - late the exercise of such discretion. Such discretion benchmarks shall be made public. Under Article 33 of the Law on Administrative Penalty, no administrative penalty shall be imposed under the following circumstances:
• where the illegal act is of a minor nature, has been timely rectified, and has caused no harmful conse - quences; • where the act constitutes a first-time violation, the harmful consequences are minor, and it has been timely rectified; or • where the party concerned provides sufficient evi - dence to prove the absence of subjective fault. 1.9 Enforcement Trends Significant data enforcement actions and trends in the past 24 months include the following. • In 2024, the MPS launched the “Clean Network” ( 净网 ) operation, investigating and resolving over 7,000 cases involving PI infringement. • In March 2025, the CAC, MIIT, MPS and SAMR jointly issued an announcement on the launch of the 2025 Special Campaign Series for Personal Information Protection. • In 2025, the MPS initiated the “Protecting Net - works 2025” ( 护网 2025) special operation, focusing on penalising failures to fulfil obligations related to cybersecurity, data security and PI protection. • From April to July 2025, the CAC carried out the “Clear and Bright: AI Technology Abuse Rectifica - tion” ( 清朗 ·AI 技术滥用整治 ) campaign, shutting down unregistered LLM applications, investigating train - ing data from illegal sources, and cracking down on the use of AI to create illegal content. • The MIIT regularly publicly announces and orders the removal of apps that infringe upon users’ rights and interests. The practical takeaways for organisations are as fol - lows. • Conduct regular self-audits and risk assessments, integrate compliance reviews into the develop - ment and launch processes for new products and services. • Actively monitor the official notices, typical cases and enforcement trends published by regulatory authorities. • Focus on areas subject to frequent regulatory penalties. In accordance with the key compliance issues highlighted in notices from authorities, conduct self-inspections to determine whether the
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