Hysome Cases | Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co., Ltd. v. a company in Guangzhou for an unfair competition dispute

Case description:

The plaintiff, Kuaishou Company, discovered that a product sold by a company in Guangzhou, the defendant included a smartphone with a modified camera and software called “softcam,” which could carry out the living broadcast on the Kuaishou platform using local video files, infringing on the plaintiff's competitive advantage and disturbing the platform order. Therefore, in early 2021, our lawyers Sun Binyan and Zhang Mengyu were appointed to file a rights protection lawsuit therefore.

The focus of the dispute in this case is whether the defendant's behavior constituted an act of unfair competition, and if so, what legal liability should it bear.

In November 2021, in accordance with the plaintiff's claims, the People's Court of Baiyun District of Guangzhou determined that the defendant's actions constituted an “act of using technical means to hinder or disrupt the normal operation of network products or services lawfully provided by other operators” as regulated by section 12 (2) (4) of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and ruled that the plaintiff shall be compensated RMB 300,000 yuan for financial losses and RMB 40,000 yuan for reasonable expenses.

As the first infringement case of "unmanned live broadcast" in China, this case has determined the way to safeguard the rights of "unmanned live broadcast" behavior, and further safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of customers.