On June 26, 2025, the CAC issued the "Regulations on the Application of Administrative Penalty Discretionary Benchmarks by Cyberspace Departments" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which will come into effect on August 1, 2025. The Regulations, for the first time, systematically divide administrative penalty standards into five levels of discretion: no penalty, mitigated penalty, lenient penalty, general penalty, and severe penalty, and refine the applicable scenarios.
According to the Regulations, no penaltyshould be imposed for minor illegal acts that are promptly corrected without causing harmful consequences or for acts without subjective fault. Lenient or mitigated penalties may be applied for acts such as voluntarily eliminating harmful consequences or cooperating with investigations. Severe penalties will be imposed for nine types of situations, including serious violations of regulations on the protection of minors, endangering network data security, committing illegal acts twice within one year, and resisting law enforcement. The fine discretion is clearly quantified: lenient penalty ≤ 30% of the statutory range, general penalty between 30% and 70%, and severe penalty ≥ 70%, with a 10% adjustment allowed based on the specific circumstances of the case.
In addition, on June 30, 2025, the CAC released the "List of Administrative Inspection Items for Enterprises by the National Internet Information Office," which clarifies specific inspection items, legal basis, frequency (general frequency, with no upper limit in special cases), and standards. The issuance of the Regulations and the list reduces the uncertainty in law enforcement by cyberspace departments and provides a more transparent enforcement expectation in the fields of cybersecurity and data compliance.
Source: Cyberspace Administration of China
Regulations on the Application of Administrative Penalty Discretionary Benchmarks by Cyberspace Departments：
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/EKfXSujjBT9MB5xZHQNr2A?scene=25&sessionid=-1085805565#wechat_redirect
List of Administrative Inspection Items for Enterprises：
https://www.cac.gov.cn/2025-06/30/c_1752998718883876.htm
