选自DEStech Publications

Public Welfare Crowdfunding Development Issues and Legal Demands in the Era of 'Internet '

Yong-Mei XIA, Shao-Hua WU*, Zhi-Jie LU, Qiao-Yan TU, Xuan-Lin WANG, Ye RAO

Keywords: Online public welfare crowdfunding; Legal relationship; Project audit; Regulatory system; Fundamental rights.

Abstract. As an emerging public welfare model combining Internet finance and public welfare rescue, Internet public welfare crowdfunding grows rapidly with the advantages of the Internet. However lots of relevant issues arise, which have seriously restricted its development. This paper studied current situation and advantages of developing online public welfare crowdfunding, analyzed the main problems of public welfare on the Internet context, and proposed the legal means to solve the problems based on clarifying the corresponding legal indictments.

Introduction

With the proposal of 'Internet ' action plan and the formulation of 'developing modern Internet industry system', 'Internet ' public welfare crowdfunding has achieved rapid development in just a few years with advantages of the diversity of project types, project participation democratization, high efficiency of project progress and transparent project operation, forming a market size of billions. Relying on Internet to carry out social and crowdfunding public welfare activities is a great change to the traditional one. Meanwhile, due to the low threshold for launching public welfare crowdfunding, unclear qualification of the platform, unclear civil legal relationships between parties, insufficient supervision on the implementation of returns of public welfare projects, and difficulty in realizing investorsrsquo; rights, online public welfare crowdfunding faces many challenges.

Problems of Public Welfare Crowdfunding in the Era of 'Internet ' The Civil and Legal Relationship between the Parties is not Clear

The main players in online public welfare crowdfunding are investors, platforms and initiators. However, neither the Charity Law nor the Public Welfare Donation Law has clarified the legal relationships among them. Relevant theories are also being gradually explored and proposed.

Some scholars believe that it is suitable for the public welfare crowdfunding platform to be an intermediator, forming an intermediation legal relationship with investors and initiators. The initiators entrust the platform to release relevant information, the platform uses its information service function to connect initiators and investors, which helps initiators complete the goal. However, it is difficult to match the existing mode of operation. Firstly, compared with the rights of the intermediaries, the obligations and risks are higher. For example, the platform not only release the information, but also conducts project review and fund management. Secondly, in the intermediation relationship, the released information is the content between the initiators and the platformrsquo;s entrusted relationship, that is, the person who initiate public welfare crowdfunding is still the initiator. After the edict of the Charity Law of the Peoplersquo;s Republic of China, the main body of the fundraising qualification was clarified, and laws stressed that individuals are not qualified. Under such circumstances, the initiators has the possibility of breaking the law.

Based on the above issues and the charity law, organizations and individuals who are not eligible for fundraising, can complete public fundraising through cooperation with charitable organizations.

Another scholar advocates that there is a authorization relationship between the initiators and the platform, that is, the initiators entrusts the platform to develop public welfare crowdfunding. At the moment, public welfare crowdfunding can be seen as an initiator who does not have the qualification for fundraising to launch ribution activities with a capable public welfare crowdfunding platform. However, we know that the legal consequences of the trustees entrusted matters will be directly attributable to the client. With the rapid development of “Internet ”, the crowdfunding platform represented by “Fun in Funding” has greatly promoted the innovation of the traditional public welfare model. With wide-ranging influence and attention from all social circles, investors support for the project is more based on the trust of the platform itself. In the legal disputes, investors often abandon their rights due to they give a small amount of money and it is difficult to provide sufficient evidences. The overall public interest litigation system of investors has not been established, so they tend to pursue the platform. In this case, if the platform is out of the trustees status, it will be difficult to truly protect the rights of investors.

Imperfect Project Audit System

At present, many public welfare crowdfunding platforms focus on the formal review of the authenticity of the main content of the project,which means the public welfare crowdfunding project can be released after platforms confirm that it is true, lacking strict specifications, review standards and necessary substantive examination. For example, after a car accident, the driver used 'Break dead 4 people, and cant afford it, please help me!' as the title to launch a public welfare crowdfunding project on the web, whose target amount was 200,000. After being exposed by the network, the “Fun in Funding” platform closed the project with the cause that “not meeting the application conditions”. However, the official did not formally respond to this1. During this process, the owner uploaded photos and accident videos on the platform, and some friends and relatives proved them. Formally, it met the conditions for publishing a project on “Fun in Funding”platform; but from an aspect of legal, the driver should be responsi

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