Boundary of Enterprise Data Rights: Supreme People's Court Guiding Case 264

WISECODE Take

In Guiding Case No. 264, the Supreme People's Court ruled that a steel company could not stop an e-commerce platform from collecting and publishing its steel factory prices, debunking the myth that others cannot use a company's data. The key lies in the steel company publishing its prices in unverified group chats with hundreds of users, which the court deemed public data rather than trade secrets. This establishes that a data source's holding right cannot arbitrarily exclude another's processing right, provided the collection is lawful and causes no material harm. This means companies sharing operational data publicly must bear the risk of third-party utilization, though those keeping secrets strictly restricted remain unaffected. To protect core pricing, first, never publish core business data in unrestricted public communities; second, use contracts to clearly define data usage scope when sharing externally. Data is like untrusted capital; once it flows into the public market, it is difficult to prevent others from lawfully trading and adding value to it.