All posts by legal

Recruiting talent through headhunting companies is an important way for many companies. However, disputes arising from headhunting agency services are not rare in practice. How can we reduce such risks and take preventive measures? Firstly, we have to figure out the common causes of such disputes. In practice, the causes could be mainly classified into the following categories: The first cause is the “collision order”. When recruiting, companies may use multiple channels, including public recruitment, internal referrals, and posting job requirements to several headhunters. Different channels may lead to the same candidate. For example, if candidate A is recommended via internal referrals and a headhunter,…

Jia and Company A, a Beijing company, signed a labor contract which expired on Feb. 16,2016. After the expiration, Jia was arranged by Company A to sign a 3-years labor contract with Company B, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Company A. During the implementation of the contract with Company B, Company A sold its share to a third party. Before the expiration day, Company B sent a notification of termination to Jia, notifying him that the contract would be terminated on the expiration date and the company would pay economic compensation. Jia hold that he had already signed a fixed-term contract for twice, so Company…

The 12th Amendment to the “Criminal Law” was reviewed and approved by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on December 29, 2023, and will come into effect on March 1, 2024. This revision will bring a significant impact on anti-fraud policies of foreign-funded enterprises. To add liabilities to the crime of offering bribes, which may curb this crime, but also may reduce the possibility to persuade the bribers to provide evidence. It is very difficult to find evidence of bribery, because of its concealment. Many bribes are in cash, or transferred to a third party by which the…

Generally speaking, an employer should complete the social insurance registration for new employee from the date of employment, by which can avoid the risk that the employer has to bear all liabilities when a new employee suffers a work-related injury before the employer completes the registration (referred to as the “gap period”). However, in practice, different companies have different practices. Some complete such registration on the date of employment; some complete such registration in a specified period every month, such as from 15th to 20th in each month, so those employees whose employment date is latter than 20th of the…

Company A, a US funded enterprise in Jiangsu, and Company B, a Japanese funded enterprise in Shanghai, have signed a sales contract, in which stipulates that in the event of a dispute, either party may submit it to an arbitration institution in Hong Kong for arbitration. Is this agreement valid? A typical viewpoint is that one of the basic principles of civil laws is the “autonomy of will”, and such agreements should be valid. In fact, such viewpoint is incorrect. The attitude of the Supreme People’s Court is very clear. In Article 83 of the “Answers to Practical Issues in…

At noon on July 31, 2017, Wong completed his resignation procedures and left the company. Unexpectedly, Wong was dead in a traffic accident on his way home. He was not liable in this accident. Wong’s family filed an application for work-related injury recognition, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Shanghai Pudong New District approved the application. The company refused to accept this recognition, and filed an administrative lawsuit against the bureau. Both the courts of the first instance and second instance supported the bureau. ((2018) Hu 01 Xing Zhong No.1436). According to Article 14, Paragraph 6 of the…

At the end of November 2023, a judgment by the Beijing Internet Court sparked heated discussions. In this case, the plaintiff used AI to generate images and published them on Xiaohongshu (an app), the defendant used those images in his article. The plaintiff filed a lawsuit to the court on the grounds of copyright infringement. The first instance judgment of the Beijing Internet Court held that the images generated by AI in this case should be deemed as “works” protected by the “Copyright Law”, so the defendant has constituted a copyright infringement. In this case, the Beijing Internet Court pointed…