Nio wins final verdict in lawsuit against vlogger

The final judgment upheld the original verdict, requiring the owner of the Douyin account Cheshiji to post an apology to Nio for thirty consecutive days and pay RMB300,000 in damages.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Nio (NYSE: NIO) has won a final verdict in a lawsuit against a vlogger, as the company begins to get tough on alleged infringements this year.

Nio received a final court ruling today that the owner of the video account Cheshiji, a company called Shanghai Yunti, was ordered to apologize and pay financial damages to the company, the electric vehicle maker’s legal department said in a statement posted on its social media accounts today.

Cheshiji, who has millions of followers on the short-video platform Douyin, claimed in a June 2, 2022 video that Nio was price discriminating against Chinese consumers and that the ES8’s price in its home market was significantly higher than what it sells for in Norway.

Nio sued the vlogger in late April, accusing him of spreading false information and violating its right to reputation. The EV maker demanded at the time that the vlogger publicly apologize on its Douyin homepage and pay RMB 2 million in damages.

On July 28, Nio said it received the court’s first-instance decision, in which Cheshiji was ordered to issue an apology to Nio for thirty consecutive days and was required to pay Nio RMB 300,000 ($41,160) in financial damages.

In today’s statement, Nio said that the court upheld the original judgment in the final verdict and that Cheshiji’s owner is required to publish an apology statement for thirty consecutive days and pay compensation of RMB 300,000 ($41,160) for economic losses within ten days of the effective date of the judgment.

The court found that the content of the infringing videos was untrue and misled ordinary internet users to draw false perceptions, and that there was obvious fault, Nio’s statement said.

The number of reposts, comments and likes on these infringing videos and topics exceeded one million, which has caused irreparable damage to Nio, the company said.

For such illegal and infringing behavior, Nio will continue to defend its rights and interests through legal means and announce other case developments in the near future, it said.

Nio will donate the compensation it receives to support charitable causes including education and elderly care, it said.

In addition to this case, Nio is suing another vlogger and has already won a first instance judgment.

Gu Yubo, owner of the account @Xiaoniushuoche (literally, Xiaoniu talks about cars) on the short-video platform Douyin, lost a first-instance trial and was ordered to apologize to Nio and pay financial damages, the company said in a November 6 statement.

The court ruled that Gu intentionally distorted and fabricated information, violating Nio’s right to reputation, and required him to post an apology on his Douyin account for 90 consecutive days and to compensate Nio for financial losses totaling more than RMB 600,000 within 10 days of the judgment’s entry into force, according to the statement.

Since April 6, Gu had posted more than a dozen short videos on his account, using insulting and vulgar language, trolling and attacking Nio and Nio users, the company said in May.

($1 = RMB 7.2894)

Vlogger ruled to apologize to Nio and pay financial damages for reputation infringement