Is commercial disclosure civil or criminal?

According to the provisions of China's criminal law, if the disclosure of trade secrets constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility can be investigated according to the crime of infringing trade secrets, and sentencing can be carried out according to the circumstances of the crime.

Whether stealing business secrets is civil or criminal depends on the situation. If the actor obtains the trade secrets of the obligee by illegal means such as theft, inducement or coercion, it is criminal that causes great losses to the obligee of trade secrets, and the rest is civil.

Whoever commits one of the following acts of infringing on trade secrets and causes heavy losses to the holder of trade secrets shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also or only be fined; Whoever causes especially serious consequences shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years, and shall also be fined:

(1) Obtaining the business secrets of the obligee by theft, inducement, coercion or other improper means;

(2) disclosing, using or allowing others to use the business secrets of the obligee obtained by means of the preceding paragraph.

I hope the above content can help you. Please consult a professional lawyer if you have any other questions.

Legal basis: Article 2 19 of the Criminal Law.

Whoever commits one of the following acts of infringing on business secrets, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years and shall also or only be fined; If the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined:

(1) Obtaining the business secrets of the obligee by improper means such as theft, bribery, fraud, coercion or electronic intrusion;

(2) disclosing, using or allowing others to use the business secrets of the obligee obtained by means of the preceding paragraph;

(3) disclosing, using or allowing others to use the business secrets in their possession in violation of confidentiality obligations or the requirements of the obligee to keep business secrets.

In the acts listed in the preceding paragraph, anyone who knowingly obtains, discloses, uses or allows others to use the trade secret shall be regarded as infringing on the theory of trade secret.

The obligee mentioned in this article refers to the owner of the business secret and the user of the business secret with the permission of the owner.