On May 19, 2025, the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court (hereinafter ¡°Pudong New Area People's Court¡±) held a press conference at the Zhangjiang Science City Chamber of Commerce to officially release the Action Plan (Version 8.0) for Advancing the Law-based Business Environment, along with a series of representative cases. The initiative aims to respond to rising market expectations for fairness and justice through institutional innovation, and to provide targeted and systematic judicial support for optimizing the business environment by continuously upgrading both the action plan and judicial practices.

Yu Wei, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice President of Pudong New Area People's Court, introduced the key contents of the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court Action Plan (Version 8.0) for Advancing a Law-based Business Environment. Yu Xi, Chief Judge of the Judicial Supervision Division, presented 12 representative cases and 5 exemplary matters. Yan Jianyi, Deputy Director of the Political Department and spokesperson for the court, hosted the press conference.

Version 8.0 plan provides targeted support for the business environment

In recent years, Pudong New Area People's Court has thoroughly implemented the central government¡¯s policies on optimizing the business environment and focused on the requirements for Pudong pioneer area. It has consistently deepened institutional innovation and, for eight consecutive years, developed action plans to promote a law-based business environment¡ªfrom Version 1.0 to Version 8.0¡ªgradually establishing a pragmatic, efficient, and systematically integrated service and protection mechanism.

As the latest iteration, Version 8.0 builds on past experience and outlines six key actions with 25 specific measures, further broken down into 45 concrete tasks. The plan highlights four areas of enhanced focus: greater emphasis on supporting major national strategies, deeper attention to the underlying logic of business environment evaluations, expanded use of digital tools to empower reforms, and a stronger commitment to addressing the judicial needs of market entities. Together, these priorities provide a clear ¡°roadmap¡± for continuously optimizing the law-based business environment.

At the press conference, Yu Weitong provided an in-depth explanation of the six major actions outlined in the Action Plan: ¡°Action to Safeguard the Development of the Pioneer Zone¡± integrates the optimization of the law-based business environment into the construction of Shanghai¡¯s ¡°Five Centers¡± and actively advances the formulation and implementation of regulations specific to Pudong New Area.

¡°Efficiency Enhancement in Filing, Trial, and Enforcement¡± focuses on improving enterprises¡¯ experience of the judicial process by enhancing litigation services, ensuring fair and lawful adjudication, and promoting good-faith and civil enforcement practices to increase businesses¡¯ sense of satisfaction and gain.

¡°Coordinated Commercial Dispute Resolution¡± aims to build a collaborative governance system by expanding the participation of commercial mediation organizations, enhancing the effectiveness of professional judges' studios, and exploring diversified mechanisms for resolving financial disputes.

¡°Bankruptcy and Reorganization Support for Enterprises¡± emphasizes strengthening bankruptcy protection for micro and small enterprises, developing a market-based prepackaged reorganization mechanism, and deepening coordination between government and courts in bankruptcy proceedings to support the healthy development and orderly exit of businesses.

¡°Empowering Reform through Digitalization¡± promotes digital judicial services for business facilitation, continues to develop digital applications for the business environment, and creates a list of enterprises in distress to guide targeted support and implementation of assistance policies.

¡°Judicial Services to Support Enterprises¡± connects industrial parks through the ¡°Pudong Legal Support for Enterprises¡± hotline, conducts legal education seminars and circuit trials, and releases legal risk alerts, representative cases, and litigation guides in response to enterprise needs.

Typical cases demonstrate judicial guidance and exemplary effect

The 12 typical cases released at the press conference cover various areas of judicial work, including civil, criminal, intellectual property, commercial, financial, and enforcement matters. These cases collectively showcase the Pudong New Area People's Court¡¯s innovative efforts to build a first-class, law-based business environment.

In a reputational rights dispute, two companies posted derogatory content about two other companies on social media. The court promptly applied behavior preservation measures and ordered the removal of the content, efficiently responding to the companies¡¯ demand for judicial relief and protecting their reputations. The case was selected by the Supreme People's Court as a model case on the judicial protection of corporate reputation.

In another bankruptcy liquidation case, the court not only facilitated a reconciliation between the debtor and creditors¡ªresulting in 100% repayment of all claims and enabling the debtor company to continue operations¡ªbut also extended its judicial functions by guiding the administrator in offering recommendations to the enterprise. In coordination with the labor inspection authority, the court conducted compliance interviews to address existing issues, visited the company to understand its legal needs, and provided targeted support to help the business regain vitality.

Other highlighted cases include the strict punishment of fraudulent wage claims to protect lawful enterprise rights, the use of flexible enforcement measures combined with enforcement warning letters to minimize disruption to businesses, and the rigorous protection of intellectual property to support and safeguard scientific and technological innovation¡ªeach case sending a strong signal of judicial support and setting exemplary precedents.

Typical cases showcase the exploration of the ¡°Pudong Model¡±

The five typical practices cover new models for cross-regional intellectual property protection, corporate bankruptcy mechanisms, diversified resolution of financial disputes, judicial protection of trade secrets, and the ¡°three-court, five-role¡± mechanism for handling labor disputes, providing comprehensive, full-cycle, and end-to-end protection for business entities.

For example, following the release and implementation of the Provisions on Improving the Market- and Law-Based Enterprise Bankruptcy System in Shanghai Pudong New Area in 2022, the Pudong New Area People's Court has continued to explore institutional mechanisms, refine regulatory application, and enhance government¨Ccourt coordination. These efforts have contributed to the initial formation of the ¡°Pudong Model¡± of bankruptcy adjudication, serving as a pilot framework for Shanghai and the country in advancing bankruptcy-related legal reforms.

In the IP field, the Pudong New Area People's Court has established a cooperative copyright protection mechanism with the Beijing Internet Court. This initiative has successfully resolved 237 cross-regional IP disputes between Beijing and Shanghai, involving several major internet companies, with total claims amounting to CNY 189 million.

In the financial sector, the Pudong New Area People's Court issued the Model Clauses for Financial Leasing Contracts (I), which have been adopted by numerous leasing firms in their contractual terms. The number of financial leasing disputes has continued to decline, contributing to the healthy development of the industry.