[Court Docket No.] 3618, first instance (初), civil case (民), (2019) Chongqing Fifth Intermediate People's Court (渝05) 

STATEMENT OF THE CASE AND FACTS

Shutui (Chongqing) Network Technology Co., Ltd. ("Shutui") was a natural person sole proprietorship limited company, and Tan * was the executive director, general manager, and only shareholder of the company. From December 2017 to July 2019, Shutui and Tan * set up six websites, including "Penguin Business Network" and "Jinzhao Promotion Network", to accept orders from customers, before transferring the orders to others, and use network technology to falsely increase the number of clicks, views and reads on the websites and product service information of Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd. and Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. ("two Plaintiffs"), and advertise them to obtain benefits from the price difference between the orders and the order transfers and fictitious sales and traffic. Through hearing, the Chongqing Fifth Intermediate People's Court held that the behavior of Shutui and Tan * in providing services of false sales and traffic data for a fee had constituted unfair competition, and ruled that Shutui and Tan * should jointly and severally compensate the two Plaintiffs for economic losses and reasonable expenses that totaled RMB 1.2 million.

ANALYSIS

This is a typical case of combating cybercrimes, and it has made clear that the behavior of Internet operators in providing services of false sales and traffic data for a fee violates the principle of honesty and creditability and business ethics, damages the rights and interests of legal operators, users and consumers, and disrupts the normal order of competition, and should thus be incorporated into the regulation of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. This case is a useful exploration of "other" unfair competition acts under Article 12 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law and provides guidelines for the adjudication of similar cases involving cybercrimes.