During the past two years, China's online peer-to-peer (P2P)
financial lending industry has been subject to a massive crackdown,
with many platforms undergoing criminal investigation for illegal
fundraising. Some users have lost all of their investment due
to platform incompetence and, sometimes, fraud. In response,
police have confiscated the revenue of the platforms and even the
salary of its employees. At the same time, most of these P2P
platforms have celebrity endorsers who earn large fees. This
has raised the question of whether users can sue the celebrity
endorsers for joint liability alongside the platform. To date,
celebrity liability has paled in contrast to the endorsement
amounts. However, legal practice is changing in this realm, as is
the potential liability.
