China opens first 'cyber court' for Internet-related disputes

Amidst a steep rise in the number of Internet-related disputes, China has launched its first cyber court in Hangzhou, also called the ‘capital of Chinese e-commerce.’

The court will exclusively deal with e-commerce and Internet-related cases including contract disputes arising from online shopping, product liability disputes arising from online shopping, internet service contract disputes, internet copyright infringement disputes, and disputes arising from financial loans executed online, according to China Law Blog.

The cyber court will "offer regular people an efficient, low-cost solution to these new kinds of disputes that take place on the internet," Du Qian, the cyber-court chief justice, told the official Supreme People's Court news agency.

"Not only will this make lawsuits as convenient as online shopping, but it will also give online shopping the same degree of judicial protection as consumption at brick-and-mortar stores."

Hangzhou is home to companies like Alibaba and NetEase as well as China’s national-level cross-border e-commerce pilot zone, which leads efforts to set standards for procedures and supervision of e-commerce transactions.

The cyber-court heard its first case on Friday- a copyright infringement dispute between an online writer and a web company where legal agents in Hangzhou and Beijing accessed the court via their computers and the trial lasted 20 minutes.