ChinaCivil Code, Arts. 469, 491 and 496 to 498 (contracts by data message, online orders and standard terms)
Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, Arts. 469, 491, 496-498
archived copy
Read from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived 2020. Publisher's page: http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2020-06/01/content_5516649.htmIn force since .
A contract terms of service (ToS) rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Contract terms
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Treat a contract made by data message, such as email or electronic data interchange, as made in writing where its content can be shown in tangible form and retrieved at any time (Art. 469).
- Treat an order submitted successfully through information published on an information network, where that information meets the conditions of an offer, as concluding the contract unless the parties agree otherwise (Art. 491, second paragraph).
- When contracting on standard terms, determine the parties' rights and duties on the principle of fairness, take reasonable steps to draw the other party's attention to terms that exempt or limit your liability or otherwise bear materially on its interests, and explain those terms on request (Art. 496).
- Do not rely on a standard term that unreasonably exempts or limits your liability, increases the other party's liability, or restricts or excludes the other party's main rights, because such a term is void (Art. 497).
- Where a standard term has two or more readings, accept the reading unfavorable to the party that supplied it (Art. 498).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Articles 469, 491 and 496 to 498 govern the form of a contract made online and the use of standard terms. None imposes a duty to create, keep, produce or review a log or record.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Article 469 treats a data message, such as an email or electronic data interchange, as a written contract where its content can be shown in tangible form and retrieved at any time. Under Article 491, a contract is concluded when the other party selects goods or services that information published on an information network offers on terms that amount to an offer and submits the order successfully, unless the parties agree otherwise.
Article 496 defines a standard term as one drawn up in advance for repeated use and not negotiated when the contract is made. A party that uses standard terms must determine the parties' rights and duties on the principle of fairness, take reasonable steps to draw the other party's attention to terms that exempt or limit its liability or otherwise bear materially on the other party's interests, and explain them on request.
Where the provider did not do so and the other party consequently did not notice or understand such a term, the other party may claim that the term does not form part of the contract. Under Article 497, a standard term is void where it unreasonably exempts or limits the provider's liability, increases the other party's liability, or restricts or excludes the other party's main rights.
Under Article 498, a standard term is read in its ordinary sense, a reading unfavorable to the provider prevails where it has two or more readings, and a term negotiated individually prevails over a standard term that conflicts with it. The Civil Code took effect on .
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