The Supreme People's Court ("SPC") has recently distributed the Guiding Opinions (II) on Several Issues concerning Law-based and Proper Trial of Civil Cases Related to the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (COVID-19) Epidemic (the "Opinions").



The Opinions focus on cases involving sales contracts, property lease contracts, financial contracts, medical insurance, corporate bankruptcy, etc. that are greatly affected by the epidemic, and provide clarifications in four aspects. The first is taking serving and ensuring "six guarantees" as an important approach to achieve "stabilization in six areas", and defusing the debt crisis facing enterprises through bankruptcy reorganization, bankruptcy reconciliation and improvement of the well-intentioned and civilized enforcement, so as to shore up market players. The second is trying cases involving disputes over sales contracts in accordance with the law to stabilize industrial and supply chains. The third is trying cases involving disputes over educational training or medical insurance contracts in accordance with the law to respond to the needs of people's livelihoods. And the fourth is effectively implementing an array of preferential policies announced amid the ongoing epidemic by the State for the benefit of enterprises and citizens, to serve and safeguard economic and social development. Among others, in response to issues that arouse great concern in the general public, including the impossibility of performance of the offline training contracts due to the impact of the epidemic, the dispute over money paid by minors on online games and tips given by them to hosts of live streaming platforms, and possible disputes over commercial medical insurance arising from the impact of the epidemic, the Opinions give detailed explanations on these issues.

(Source: http://www.court.gov.cn/fabu-xiangqing-230181.html)