Entertainment Law Newsletter | Oct. 23, 2026

Key Focus

CAC launches the identification process for online platforms with a large number of minor users and significant impact on minors — Platforms specifically targeting minors as service recipients, with more than 10 million registered users or more than 1 million monthly active users, shall proactively file applications; for platforms whose service recipients are not limited to minors, where registered minor users exceed 10 million or monthly active minor users exceed 1 million, they shall also proactively file applications. Relevant platforms must complete self-assessment and submit application materials within 20 working days from the date of publication of the announcement.
Shanghai Pudong Court hears a dispute over refund of online game top-up — An adult player continuously and independently topped up to purchase in-game equipment, and the game company provided corresponding equipment and services and fulfilled its duty of explanation and reminder; the court held that the player’s claim to rescind the contract and obtain a refund solely on the ground that the game experience did not meet his personal expectations lacked factual and legal basis, and therefore dismissed his claim for refund of more than RMB 56,000 in top-up payments. The judgment has come into legal effect.
Chengdu Jinjiang Court hears a copyright infringement case involving NFT digital collectibles — Minting another’s artistic works into NFTs and listing them for trading without permission infringes the right of communication through information networks; as the platform was deeply involved in the procurement, minting and issuance of the works and charged transaction fees, but failed to verify the source of authorization and did not take timely action after receiving complaints, it shall bear joint and several liability within the scope of its fault.

News

The General Office of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government issues the “Several Measures on Vigorously Developing the Event Economy and Promoting Sports Consumption”: It proposes to cultivate original Chinese digital sports event IPs, introduce leading esports clubs and improve the esports event system; strengthen confirmation of event copyright and protection of intellectual property rights, and promote event copyright operation, commercial development and development of derivatives.
The China-EU Seminar on Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment is held in Yinchuan: The National Copyright Administration and the EU-China Intellectual Property Project conducted exchanges on topics such as China-EU copyright legislation and enforcement, copyright protection in the era of generative artificial intelligence, and handling of cross-border infringement, and proposed to explore the establishment of copyright rules adapted to AI scenarios in conjunction with the revision of the Regulations for the Implementation of the Copyright Law, and to strengthen monitoring of the dissemination of AI-generated content and the handling of copyright complaints and reports.
The China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association releases the “2025 China Online Literature Development Report”: In 2025, the online literature market generated revenue of RMB 57.472 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.99%; the overseas market reached RMB 6.983 billion, a year-on-year increase of 45.03%. The number of online literature IP adaptations increased to 91,392 works (titles/instances), with the relevant incremental volume mainly coming from short dramas and AI comic dramas.
The Game Working Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association releases the “Quarterly Report on China’s Game Industry from July to September 2026”: In the third quarter, actual sales revenue of the domestic game market reached RMB 92.522 billion, representing a quarter-on-quarter increase of 1.36% and a year-on-year increase of 5.11%; among this, revenue from the mobile game and client game markets reached RMB 67.820 billion and RMB 20.547 billion respectively, while revenue from independently developed games in overseas markets reached USD 5.772 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.58%.
Sensor Tower releases the global revenue ranking of Chinese mobile game publishers for September 2026: Thirty-seven Chinese companies entered the global top 100 mobile game publishers by revenue, with combined revenue reaching USD 2 billion, accounting for 41.6% of the total revenue on the list; revenues of “Genshin Impact” and “Onmyoji” increased by 42% and more than 170% month-on-month respectively.
NetEase Cloud Music and Unitree Robotics reach a cooperation agreement: NetEase Cloud Music’s licensed music library will be integrated into Unitree’s Go2 quadruped robot and G1 and R1 humanoid robots, enabling users to request music through natural language commands; the parties will continue to develop embodied intelligent music experiences adapted to scenarios such as child companionship and home entertainment.

Cases

Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court mediates a copyright dispute arising from the use of dictionary content by a learning device: A dictionary company alleged that a certain learning device used a large amount of content from the “Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese” without permission and claimed damages of RMB 10.24 million; the parties ultimately reached agreement on compensation and established a cooperation mechanism for licensing genuine content, with the scope of cooperation later extended to “Cihai”.
The People’s Procuratorate of Jindong District, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province handles a case involving large-scale manufacture and sale of counterfeit cultural heritage IP refrigerator magnets: The criminal group copied cultural and creative products of 35 right holders including the Palace Museum and the National Museum of China, cumulatively manufacturing and selling more than 800,000 pieces, with sales exceeding RMB 16.60 million; upon public prosecution by the procuratorial organ, the court convicted the principal offender, Qian, of the crime of copyright infringement and sentenced him to three years and six months’ fixed-term imprisonment, imposed a fine of RMB 800,000, and confiscated RMB 795,000 of illegal gains, while 18 persons involved upstream and downstream in the criminal chain were also held criminally liable.
Changsha Wangcheng Court concludes a dispute over loss of virtual property arising from lending a game account: During the period of use, the borrower’s violation of rules resulted in the account being banned for 10 years, and the borrower shall bear primary liability for compensation; the account owner, knowing that the account had previously been banned for violations, still repeatedly lent it out and failed to exercise reasonable care. On this basis, the court held that the parties should bear 70% and 30% of the liability respectively, and ordered the borrower to compensate RMB 1,358.

Key Focus

CAC launches the identification process for online platforms with a large number of minor users and significant impact on minors

In accordance with the Regulations on the Protection of Minors in Cyberspace and the Measures for the Identification of Online Platform Service Providers with a Large Number of Minor Users and Significant Impact on the Group of Minors, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has officially launched the identification process for online platform service providers with a large number of minor users and significant impact on the group of minors, and simultaneously issued guidelines for the application process. Platforms that meet the identification criteria shall proactively carry out self-assessment and submit application materials within 20 working days from the date of publication of the announcement. The core contents are as follows:

Clarifying the threshold for identifying a large number of minor users: Platforms that specifically target minors as service recipients, with more than 10 million registered users or more than 1 million monthly active users, shall proactively file applications; for platforms whose service recipients are not limited to minors, where registered minor users exceed 10 million or monthly active minor users exceed 1 million, they shall also proactively file applications.
Comprehensively assessing the platform’s impact on minors: The identification work will comprehensively consider factors such as platform download volume, user scale, product sales and transaction volume; minors’ login frequency, usage duration, usage preferences and consumption amount; the scale of information content involving minors, representativeness in vertical sectors; as well as issues of violations and irregularities involving minors and their negative impact over the past three years.
Requiring platforms to proactively carry out self-assessment and submit applications within a specified time limit: Platforms that meet the identification criteria shall, within 20 working days from the date of publication of the announcement, submit hard-copy and electronic materials through provincial-level CAC departments; for platforms that meet the criteria but fail to proactively file applications, the Identification Work Advisory Committee will notify them to submit materials in a timely manner.
Detailing application materials and responsibility for authenticity: Platforms shall submit an application form, a platform information sheet, a self-assessment report, a letter of undertaking and relevant supporting materials. The self-assessment report shall cover the platform’s basic information, user scale and proportion of minor users, minors’ usage conditions, conclusions of the platform impact assessment, and protection measures for minors that have been implemented; platforms shall be responsible for the completeness, authenticity and accuracy of the materials, and shall not provide false information, make misleading statements or have material omissions.

We understand that this announcement marks the entry of the Measures for the Identification of Online Platform Service Providers with a Large Number of Minor Users and Significant Impact on the Group of Minors into the application and implementation stage. Short video, live-streaming, online game, online audio-visual, social networking and content community platforms that may meet the identification criteria should promptly verify data on the scale, usage and consumption of minor users and records of relevant violations and irregularities over the past three years, assess whether they meet the application criteria, and submit complete, truthful and accurate application materials within 20 working days from the date of publication of the announcement.

Source: China CAC Portal

Shanghai Pudong Court concludes a dispute over refund of online game top-up

Chi is an adult player of a certain online game. From November 2024 to October 2025, he logged into the game more than 1,700 times in total, topped up more than 240 times and spent more than RMB 56,000 to purchase in-game equipment and enhance his character’s combat power. As he still frequently lost in the game after topping up, Chi claimed that the game company had expressly or implicitly indicated through relevant publicity that topping up could rapidly and significantly enhance combat power, but failed to provide services as agreed, and therefore filed a lawsuit seeking rescission of the online service contract and refund of all top-up payments. The game company argued that information such as level requirements, combat power values and attributes of the equipment in question had been fully displayed on the purchase page, and that the player’s actual game experience was also affected by factors such as the opponent’s strength, operating skills and network environment.

The People’s Court of Pudong New Area, Shanghai Municipality held that Chi had full capacity for civil conduct, and the top-ups in question were consumption choices continuously and independently made by him, and that the online service contract formed between the parties was lawful and valid. The game company had provided corresponding equipment and services and fulfilled its duty of explanation and reminder, and there was no false publicity, inducement of consumption or other breach of contract. Chi also failed to prove that his expression of intent was not genuine or that the game company had committed any breach.

The court further pointed out that online games are interactive and competitive in nature, and that although purchasing equipment may enhance certain attributes of a character, the game result and subjective experience are still affected by multiple factors, and enhancement of virtual equipment attributes cannot be equated with a guarantee of victory or game experience. Chi’s request to rescind the contract and obtain a refund solely on the ground that the game experience did not meet his personal expectations lacked factual and legal basis and was also contrary to the principle of good faith. On this basis, the court dismissed all of his claims; neither party appealed, and the judgment has come into legal effect.

Game enterprises should clearly and accurately display the attributes, applicable conditions and actual functions of virtual items on the purchase page, avoid publicizing attribute or combat power enhancement as a definite guarantee of win rate, ranking or game experience, and properly retain records of product descriptions, purchase confirmations and service delivery. Meanwhile, where adult players independently and continuously top up, game enterprises have delivered virtual items in accordance with the agreement, fully explained their attributes and functions, and there is no evidence proving false publicity, inducement of consumption or other breach of contract by the enterprises, players who claim rescission of the contract and refund solely on the ground that their actual game experience does not meet personal expectations may find it difficult to obtain support from the court.

Source: Shanghai Pudong Court

Chengdu Jinjiang Court concludes a copyright infringement case involving NFT digital collectibles

The plaintiff, Chen, is the author of 32 artistic works including the “Eight Immortals Series”, the “Three Kingdoms Series” and the “Nine Wealth Gods Series”. In August 2024, a company in Chengdu, without permission, transferred more than 30 works in question for consideration to the operator of a certain NFT digital collectible trading platform. The platform minted 22 of these works into NFT digital collectibles, issued them through methods such as synthesis and airdrops, and provided consignment trading services on the secondary market, charging a 4.5% handling fee based on the transaction amount, but did not indicate the true author of the works. In February 2025, Chen repeatedly lodged complaints with the platform and submitted proof of ownership and relevant materials, but the platform did not remove the infringing content until it received the litigation materials.

The People’s Court of Jinjiang District, Chengdu Municipality held that converting artistic works into data and writing them into a blockchain constitutes digital reproduction; after NFTs are listed for trading, the public can access the works at a time and place of their own choosing, which mainly falls within the scope of control of the right of communication through information networks. As NFT trading does not involve physical transfer of tangible carriers or changes in property rights, it does not constitute distribution in the sense of the Copyright Law; the digital reproduction in this case was absorbed by the subsequent acts of communication through information networks, and the relevant acts carried out without permission infringed the plaintiff’s right of communication through information networks.

The court also pointed out that the right of authorship is personal in nature and non-transferable, and that the platform’s failure to indicate the true author information infringed the plaintiff’s right of authorship. The platform in question did not merely provide information storage space or basic technical services, but was deeply involved in the procurement, minting and initial issuance of the works, and charged handling fees for each transaction, thereby possessing strong review capabilities and content control, and should bear a higher duty of substantive examination of rights. The platform failed to verify whether the transferor had obtained lawful authorization, and did not promptly disconnect links or remove content after receiving valid complaints, and therefore shall bear joint and several liability for the portion of damages arising from the expansion of harm. The court ultimately ordered the two defendants to cease the infringement, with the Chengdu company compensating economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling RMB 100,000, and the platform company bearing joint and several liability within the amount of RMB 50,000, and to publish an announcement clarifying the ownership of copyright in the works in question.

This case has direct reference value for platforms providing services for NFT digital collectibles, digital artworks and other content minting, issuance and secondary trading. Where platforms actually participate in the procurement, minting, initial issuance or trading operation of works and charge handling fees therefrom, it may be difficult for them to rely solely on the status of information storage service providers to apply the general “notice-and-takedown” rule. Therefore, relevant enterprises should verify the identity of creators, the chain of authorization and authorship information before works go online, retain copyright registration certificates, original drafts and authorization documents, and establish complaint handling mechanisms capable of promptly verifying proof of rights, suspending trading and removing content.

Source: Sichuan Rule of Law Daily