In practice, numerous foreign companies have accumulated good reputation and brand value in China through long-term and extensive use of their business names (abbreviations, trade names). However, due to various reasons, the business names of these foreign companies, or other names highly similar to their business names, might have already been directly registered in China as trade names by infringers, and used in the same business field. On one hand, this rush registration might lead to confusion among the public, and preempt the business opportunities of the original owners of the business names. On the other hand, if these foreign companies, as the original owners of the business names, intend to enter the Chinese market and establish entities on their own one day, failure to register their own business name might also be an obstacle to their business development.

Suppose a German company A, with affiliate entity in China a. For the consideration of unified company management and marketing, employees of all affiliated entities of company A use a unified mailbox service system, for example: user@A.com . In addition, the mailbox server of company A is built in Germany. When the employees in a use the mailbox service whose server is set up in Germany, will it cause the domestic party exporting personal data?

On 1 June 2023, the Measures on the Standard Contract for Outbound Transfer of Personal Information (the “Measures”) issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China(CAC) comes into force. The Measures shall be implemented by all “personal information processors” in China (which usually refers to any organization or individual that transfers personal information outside the territory of the PRC). The Measures is a supporting legislative document to the Personal Information Protection Law (“PIPL”). Unless otherwise specified, normal personal information processors may choose to use the Standard Contract for Outbound Transfer of Personal Information (“Standard Contract”) attached to the Measures to conclude a contract with the personal information recipient outside China and apply for filing with the cyberspace administration at the provincial level, thereby meeting the compliance requirements for the outbound transfer of personal information in a relatively simple way.