AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/25 Report--

Guazi issued a statement on the official platform today apologizing to Renche. The dispute over unfair competition between Guazi and Renren has been concluded, and Guazi apologized for the impact of the unfair competition on Renren, the statement said.

The specific contents are as follows: Beijing Renche used vehicle Brokerage Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Renche") sued many used motor vehicle brokers (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (2019 Beijing 0105 early Republic of China 8011 case) has now been concluded. We deeply apologize for the impact of the unfair competition involved in the judgment on Renren car, and hereby solemnly apologize. Our company undertakes to stop the related acts involved in the case, implement the court decision, and will conduct a strict review in subsequent business activities to prevent such a situation from happening again.

According to the (2019) Beijing 0105 judgment No. 8011 at the beginning of the Republic of China issued by the referee Writing website, the trial of unfair competition dispute between the plaintiff Beijing Renche used vehicle Brokerage Co., Ltd. and the defendant car used vehicle Brokerage (Beijing) Co., Ltd. has been concluded. Guazi was ordered to apologize to Renren Automobile Company and compensate for economic losses of 1 million yuan.

According to the judgment, the plaintiff Renche filed a lawsuit with the court at that time, saying that many car companies on their "Guazi direct selling website", Wechat official account, Sina Weibo account and other platforms, released a large number of advertising campaigns containing the most advanced and absolute terms such as "industry first", "industry No.1" and "industry top", as well as the words "leading" to promote it as the first in the industry. The aim is to mislead the public to get more trading opportunities. Renche said that the behavior disrupted the market competition order, damaged the company's competitive advantage, caused serious economic losses and adverse effects to the company, and constituted unfair competition behavior of false propaganda.

The court held that Renren car Company and many car companies are providers of second-hand car trading brokerage services, and the objects, methods, contents and scope of their services are highly overlapping and belong to competitors in the same industry.

According to Article 8 of the Anti-unfair Competition Law of the people's Republic of China, business operators shall not make false or misleading commercial publicity about the performance, function, quality, sales status, user evaluation, honor, etc., of their commodities, deceive or mislead consumers. Article 8, paragraph 3, of the interpretation of the Supreme people's Court on several issues concerning the Application of Law in the trial of Civil cases of unfair Competition stipulates that the people's court shall determine the misleading false propaganda according to such factors as daily life experience, the general attention of the relevant public, the facts of misunderstanding and the actual situation of the object to be publicized.

The court held that the purpose of many car companies is to mislead consumers and make the public think that Guazi has an advantage over other competitors and that other competitors are not as good as Guazi, thus influencing consumers' purchase decisions in order to get more trading opportunities. This disrupts the fair market competition order, improperly harms the interests of other competitors, and constitutes false propaganda.

The court ruled that Che many immediately stopped the false publicity involved in the case from the date the judgment came into effect, and fulfilled its obligation to publish a statement on its Sina Weibo, WeChat account and official website for three consecutive days, compensating Renche for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 1 million yuan.

It is worth noting that there have been many disputes between Renche and Guazi. As early as 2017, Guazi sued Renren car, saying that the company used false propaganda such as "buy a car with 0 down payment, sell for three days" and so on, which would mislead consumers and constitute false propaganda in unfair competition.

However, in 2019, Renche in turn sued Guazi, arguing that the latter's advertising slogans on many media platforms, such as "leading position in the industry" and "No.1 of the used car industry", disturbed the market competition order, had a negative impact on Renren Automobile Company, and constituted false propaganda and unfair competition. In February this year, the court found that Guazi's behavior constituted unfair competition and ordered Guazi to publish a statement on Weibo, Wechat and other platforms for three consecutive days and compensate people and cars for 1 million yuan. However, Guazi immediately released the industry statistics, thinking that he was indeed the first in sales, leading the industry, did not admit mistakes and was not willing to lose money, and was eventually listed by the court as an untrustworthy executor.

In fact, Guazi has been sued for unfair competition by his peers many times in recent years because of the problem of advertising words. It is true that all kinds of industries want to highlight their advantages and status in marketing promotion, but peer competition should rely more on strength, really good publicity, but also rely on users' word-of-mouth.

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