Editing Punitive damages (section)

===People's Republic of China===
In very few industries, punitive damages could be awarded in either contractual or tort case, except a tort relevant to product defraud or defect. Article 49 of the PRC Law on Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests enacted on October 31, 1993, provides the rule that any consumer is entitled to a recovery of double the purchase price of products or service from the seller or service provider against their defraud.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=Punitive Damages, Chinese Tort Law, and the American Experience |url=https://commons.stmarytx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1431&context=facarticles |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=stmarytx.edu}}</ref> Successful cases have been widely reported{{Citation needed|date=September 2013}} in this regard.

Article 96 of the PRC Law on Food Safety adopted on February 28, 2009, raises the punitive damages to ten times the purchase price added to the compensatory damages that the victim has already claimed from the producer or seller for food with poor quality not compliant to food safety standards.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Translate |first=China Law |date=2013-04-04 |title=Food Safety Law of the PRC |url=https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/en/food-safety-law-of-the-prc/ |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=China Law Translate |language=en}}</ref> Such a substantial statutory amount considered by the legislative organ is based on several extremely serious food quality incidents in the past two years, such as the notorious [[2008 Chinese milk scandal|Sanlu tainted milk powder case]].

Application of the punitive damage rule is further expanded with the enactment of the PRC Law on Tort Liability effective as of July 1, 2010. This new law sets forth that a victim is entitled to claim punitive damages from any manufacturer or seller expressly aware of the defects in products but still produces or sells them if it results in death or heavy injuries. Since this is a somewhat new law so far, no further explanatory regulation regarding a detailed amount and applicable scope is promulgated guiding the application of this rule, so a court judge may have discretional power to decide punitive damages case by case under this new law.