The Supreme People's Court ("SPC") has recently distributed the Several Opinions on Providing Judicial Safeguards for the Launch of the SSE STAR Market and the Piloting of Registration-based Initial Public Offering Reform (the "Opinions").
The Opinions call for: 1. raising awareness and making conscious and proactive efforts to judicially safeguard the launch of SSE STAR Market and the piloting of registration-based initial public offering (IPO) reform; 2. showing respect for the law of capital market development and legally ensuring the smooth progress of the stock listing system reform centering around the market-based mechanism; 3. upholding an open, fair and just market order and legally enhancing the cost of violations and irregularities in the capital market; 4. effectively protecting lawful rights and interests of investors and instituting and improving a civil action system for securities-related disputes that is appropriate to the registration-based IPO reform. Among others, the Opinions state that the issuance and listing of stocks, previously subject to the examination and approval by the China Securities Regulatory Commission ("CSRC"), will undergo the examination by the Shanghai Stock Exchange ("SSE") and the registration with the CSRC. The Opinions also clarify the civil liability of issuers for fraud committed during the IPO examination process of SSE, and provide that first-instance civil and commercial cases in relation to disputes over securities issuance, contractual disputes over securities listing, disputes over liability for securities fraud, etc., will all fall under the jurisdiction of the Shanghai Financial Court on a pilot basis.