Hysome Cases | A company in Xi'an v. Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co., Ltd. for a dispute over infringement of the right to disseminate information on the Internet

Case description:

A company in Xi'an discovered that there were video clips of certain works on the Kuaishou platform, believing that Kuaishou had infringed the right to distribute information about its works online, so it sued before the Beijing Internet Court, requesting the compensation from Kuaishou for financial losses. In this case, Kuaishou Company entrusted the lawyers Sun Binyan and Li Run of our firm to respond to the lawsuit in March 2021.

The focus of the dispute in this case is whether Kuaishou, as a network service provider, shall bear the joint liability for tort caused by its users' infringements.

After accepting the commission, our firm's lawyers argue from multiple perspectives that the client does not constitute “know perfectly well” or “should know” and should not be responsible for infringing on the right to disseminate information about the work on the Internet. The court held that according to the evidence on the record, it could prove that Kuaishou Company had done its reasonable duty of care and should not bear the responsibility of helping the infringement, so it rejected all claims proposed by the plaintiff. In May 2023, the court of second instance upheld the original judgment after a trial.

In recent years, under the background of judicial practice that has strictly enforced the platform’s duty of care, the attorney has helped the client to avoid tort liability through evidentiary materials, legal arguments, etc., and reasonably clarified the boundary of the platform’s duty of care in such cases.