Recently, the Supreme People's Court ("SPC") issued the Provisions on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Cases Relating to the Use of Face Recognition Technology to Process Personal Information (the "Provisions"), with effect from August 1, 2021. 

The Provisions contain 16 articles in terms of tort liability, contract rules, legal proceedings, etc. Among them, Articles 2 to 9 of the Provisions clarify how to define the nature and responsibilities of the abuse of facial recognition technology to process facial information from the perspectives of personality right and tort liability; Articles 10 to 12 mainly respond to the issues of public concern from the perspectives of property services, validity of standard clauses and the responsibility for breach of contract. According to the Provisions, if information processors process facial information under any of eight scenarios, including "use of facial recognition technology to conduct face verification, identification or analysis in hotels, shopping malls, banks, stations, airports, stadiums, entertainment venues and other business venues, public places that violate the provisions of laws and administrative regulations, the court shall consider that they infringes upon the personality right of natural persons.

(Source: Supreme People's Court)