China: Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court issued judgment determining that companies cannot terminate employees solely to replace them with AI systems

Description

Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court issued judgment determining that companies cannot terminate employees solely to replace them with AI systems

On 28 April 2026, the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court ruled that companies cannot terminate employees solely to replace them with artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It was stated that the ruling was released as part of a set of typical cases…

Scope

Policy Area
Labour law
Policy Instrument
Worker classification or protection regulation
Regulated Economic Activity
ML and AI development
Implementation Level
national
Government Branch
judiciary
Government Body
court

Complete timeline of this policy change

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2026-04-28
concluded

On 28 April 2026, the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court ruled that companies cannot terminate em…