CHINA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Hao Zhan, Jia Wan, Xuelei Wang and Wei Cui, AnJie Broad Law Firm
Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), which was abolished in 2018, insurance companies can operate cyber-insurance business in several areas, such as personal accident injury insurance, term-life insurance and whole-life insurance, household property insur- ance, liability insurance, etc. In 2016, nearly 80% of Chinese insurance companies had started their cyber-insurance business through different business models, such as constructing their own websites or co-operating with third-party plat- forms. In 2025, among the channels used by internet insurance consumers to purchase their in-force insur- ance products, traditional insurers’ online channels accounted for 63%, surpassing their offline channels for the first time and becoming the primary channel for insurance purchases. As a result, traditional insur- ers’ online channels became the leading channels for insurance purchases among surveyed internet insur- ance consumers in 2025, reflecting the continued shift towards online insurance purchasing. The development of cyber-insurance without a well- established regulatory system has triggered chaos. In 2019, the CBIRC and its branches received 19,900 consumer complaints about cyber-insurance, which represented a year-on-year increase of 88.59% and seven times the complaint volume in 2016. This rapid growth correspondingly resulted in a surge of litigation cases related to cyber-insurance policies. The forma- tion of a cyber-insurance policy is different to that of a traditional policy, so the disputes are usually related to the formation process. According to Article 3 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concern- ing the Application of the Insurance Law of the Peo- ple’s Republic of China (II) (amended in 2020), if the policyholder or the policyholder’s agent does not sign or seal the insurance policy in person, but the insurer or the insurer’s agent signs or seals it on behalf of the policyholder, the policy should not take effect for the policyholder; however, if the policyholder has already paid the insurance premium, it should be regarded as its retroactive recognition of the act of signing or stamping on behalf of the policyholder. Therefore, whether the electronic signature is provided by the policyholder themselves and whether the signature
is valid are significant in the formation and inception of cyber-insurance policies. The effectiveness of the cyber-insurance policy also depends on whether the policyholder pays the premium in full and on time through electronic means. According to Article 17 of the Insurance Law of the People’s Republic of China (the “PRC Insurance Law”), an insurer should highlight clauses that exclude the liability of the insurer on the insurance application form, insurance policy document or any other insur- ance certificate, for the attention of the policyholder in an insurance policy, and should explain the contents of such clauses to the policyholder, in writing or ver- bally; where there is no highlighting or explicit expla- nation, such clauses should be considered invalid. Due to the convenience and efficiency of purchasing cyber-insurance, the policyholder frequently asserts that the insurers fail to perform their obligation under Article 17 of the PRC Insurance Law. Therefore, in cyber-insurance litigation, it is up to the insurers to prove that they fulfil the obligation to inform the policy- holder of the contents of the insurance policy truthfully through the internet sales platform. Insurance litigation in the green economy The demand for green insurance in the green financial market is increasing, and agricultural insurance plays an essential role in the growth of green insurance in China. China is currently one of the major countries in terms of agricultural insurance premium income, which totalled CNY155 billion in 2025. Faced with the direct or indirect risks brought by global environmental pollution, climate change and natural disasters, the corresponding disputes over agricultural insurance policies have increased. The main features are as fol- lows. • First, agricultural insurance policies litigation usu- ally comes in the form of a series of cases – ie, different plaintiffs in the same area bring separate litigation cases against the same insurer for similar facts and reasons. • Second, agricultural insurance products are generally policy-oriented, and subsidies from the local government are granted for public interest considerations. The PRC Agricultural Insurance Regulations clearly stipulate that the local financial
80 I NSURANCE L I T IGATI O N 2026
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