Description

In China’s bankruptcy proceedings, the disposal of enterprise data assets faces multiple challenges. First, the property attributes, ownership boundaries, and criteria for including data assets in bankruptcy estates remain unclear, leaving bankruptcy administrators without a solid legal basis for their disposal. Second, tensions persist between the obligation to protect personal information and the goal of maximizing bankruptcy estate value, as existing laws lack concrete mechanisms to balance these interests. Third, mechanisms for data classification, valuation, and monetization of data assets are underdeveloped, making it difficult to ensure both data security and accurate valuation for asset realization. Moreover, the responsibilities of bankruptcy administrators regarding data security and the authority of creditors’ meetings in data-related decisions remain insufficiently institutionalized. Future reforms should focus on clarifying the legal status of data assets, developing classification rules for enterprise data assets, establishing valuation and trading mechanisms, and clarifying the administrator’s role in managing bankruptcy estate including data assets and strengthening administrators’ data security obligations in the disposal of the data assets. By recognizing the “the three data rights”— the right to control data, the right to process data, and the right to operate data products, bankruptcy law can provide a framework that not only facilitates the effective disposal of data assets but also ensures that its full potential is realized in insolvency scenarios in China.