Supreme Law: Using the joint property of a couple for excessive live broadcast rewards without their consent can be regarded as “extravagance”
Supreme Law Courts ‘Sets the Rules’ for Online Live Broadcasting Tips Involving Marriages
On January 15th, the Supreme Law Courts released the second interpretation of the Civil Code’s marriage and family provisions, further regulating new situations and controversial issues that need to be resolved urgently in the trial practice of marriage and family disputes.
The interpretation, which will be implemented from February 1st, 2025, clearly states that if one spouse, without the consent of the other, uses their joint property to give tips on an online live broadcasting platform and the amount is significantly beyond their general family consumption level, it can be considered as “extravagance.”
“In recent years, the number of family disputes has been running at a high level,” said Chen Yifang, head of the Supreme Law Courts’ Civil First Instance Tribunal. In the past three years, the number of first-instance marriage, family, and inheritance disputes resolved by the courts nationwide has been approximately 2 million cases per year, accounting for about 12% of all first-instance civil cases. Among them, divorce disputes account for approximately 1.5 million cases per year, nearly 80% of all family cases. Property division has become a focus in divorce disputes. With the increasing value of cases and the diversification of property types, problems in marriage, family, and property are intertwined, making complex and difficult cases emerge, and it is urgent to unify legal application standards.
Pengpai News noted that the “Interpretation (II)” consists of 23 articles that focus on addressing difficult issues in trial practice that are of public concern, such as giving real estate between spouses, parents’ contributions for purchasing a house for their children after marriage, giving away joint property to others in violation of the spouse’s loyalty obligations, and kidnapping or hiding minor children.
Among them, Article 6 specifically states that if one spouse, without the consent of the other, uses their joint property to give tips on an online live broadcasting platform and the amount is significantly beyond their general family consumption level, seriously harming the joint property interests of both spouses, it can be identified as “extravagance” under Article 1066 and Article 1092 of the Civil Code. The other spouse can request dividing the joint property during the marriage or requesting a smaller share from the tip-giving spouse when dividing the joint property during divorce. The court shall support such requests.