| Operator of the Sina Weibo Platform v. Company B (Dispute over Unfair Competition)—— | | 新浪微博平台运营公司与B公司不正当竞争纠纷案 |
| Court rules: Offering “click farming” services for false commercial advertisement constitutes unfair competition | | ——提供“刷量”服务 实现虚假商业宣传 法院：构成不正当竞争 |
| In the era where “traffic reigns supreme”, the number of followers and comments has become a crucial standard for assessing the commercial value of social media accounts. Consequently, some merchants began to devise schemes to provide consumers with “click farming” services to increase the number of followers and comments on Sina Weibo, allowing their accounts to gain popularity and attention quickly. | | “流量为王”的时代中，粉丝数、评论数已经成为评判互联网账号商业价值的重要标准。于是，一些商家动起了“歪脑筋”，向消费者提供增加微博粉丝数、评论数的“刷量”服务，消费者购买“刷量”服务即可让自己的账号快速获得人气与关注。 |
| Do such actions by merchants infringe upon the lawful rights of social platform operators? What price will merchants pay? | | 商家这样的行为是否侵犯社交平台运营商的合法权利？商家将会付出怎样的代价？ |
| [Case Review] | | 【案情回放】 |
| In 2021, the plaintiff, the operator of the Sina Weibo platform, discovered that Company B was offering “click farming” services to manipulate Sina Weibo account data such as cheating the number of comments and followers, all clearly priced on various platforms it operated. After purchasing the service, the affected accounts would immediately see tens of thousands of views and thousands of new followers added. | | 2021年，原告新浪微博平台的运营公司发现，B公司在其设立的各类平台经营新浪微博账号数据“刷量”服务，刷量评论、粉丝数量等服务均“明码标价”。购买服务后，相应账号立刻增加上万阅读量、上千粉丝。 |
| The plaintiff then filed a lawsuit in the People's Court, demanding that Company B, its legal representative Xu, and Huang, who participated in click farming, immediately cease their unfair competitive activities, compensate for reasonable losses, and mitigate the impact. | | 原告遂起诉至人民法院，要求B公司和法定代表人许某、参与刷量行为的黄某立即停止不正当竞争行为，赔偿合理损失，消除影响。 |
| Defendants Company B and Xu argued that their business scope and model differed from those of Sina Weibo, thereby not engaging in direct competition, and that click farming was a legitimate marketing strategy, not constituting unfair competition. They claimed they were merely intermediaries in the “click farming” services, the added follower data was real, and they did not use technical means to disrupt the platform's system or products. They maintained that the action of “generating followers” did not hinder the platform's normal operations; moreover, the disputed click farming had ceased and had not caused substantial losses to the plaintiff. | | 被告B公司、许某辩称，其与新浪微博的经营范围、模式均不同，不具有竞争关系，刷量行为是正常营销手段，不属于不正当竞争；被告仅是“刷量”服务的中介商，增加的粉丝量数据真实存在，未使用技术手段破坏平台系统和产品。刷粉行为未妨碍平台的正常运营;且涉案刷量行为已经停止，未给原告造成巨额损失。 |
| Defendant Huang did not respond to the allegations. | | 被告黄某未作答辩。 |
| [Case Study] | | 【以案说法】 |
| Shanghai Putuo District People's Court (hereinafter referred to as “Putuo District People's Court”) concluded that Sina Weibo possesses legitimate rights and interests in the data on the social media platform involved in the case. The traffic, legitimate commercial benefits, and competitive advantages it accrues should be legally protected. | | 上海市普陀区人民法院（以下简称“普陀区人民法院”）经审理认为，新浪微博在涉案社交平台上的数据享有合法权益，其获得的流量、正当商业利益及竞争优势应受到法律保护。 |
| The three defendants organized false click farming to assist users in conducting misleading or deceptive commercial promotion, violating the Law of the People's Republic of China on Anti-Unfair Competition(hereinafter referred to as the “Law on Anti-Unfair Competition”). This act compromised the legal rights and interests of various stakeholders including the operators of the social platform, users, and advertisers, and disrupted the normal market competition order. | | 三被告通过组织虚假刷流量的方式，帮助刷粉的用户实现了虚假或者引人误解的商业宣传，违反了《中华人民共和国反不正当竞争法》，（以下简称“《反不正当竞争法》”）损害了社交平台运营方、用户、广告商等各方主体的合法权益，亦破坏了正常的市场竞争秩序。 |
| The business of click farming heavily relies on and directly affects the social media platform involved. Even in the absence of a direct competitive relationship, it undermines the plaintiff's core competitive advantages. The nature of the defendants' involvement, acting as intermediaries for the “click farming” services, does not alter the fact that they charged for these services and objectively provided them. | | 刷量业务高度依赖并直接作用于涉案社交平台，即使不具有直接竞争关系，也破坏了原告的核心竞争优势。即使仅为“刷量”服务的中间商，也不改变被告收取“刷量”服务费用、客观上提供“刷量”服务的性质。 |
| Taking into account the renown of Sina Weibo, the pattern, nature, duration, and impact of the alleged infringement, and the degree of the defendants' subjective fault, the People's Court ordered the three defendants to immediately cease their unfair competition against the plaintiff. Defendants B Company and Xu are jointly liable to compensate the plaintiff in the amount of RMB 2,000,000, and Defendant Huang is responsible for a joint compensation of RMB 200,000. Additionally, the defendants are required to publish a statement in the “Legal Daily” to mitigate the impact of their actions. | | 人民法院综合考虑新浪微博的知名度、被诉侵权行为的模式、性质、持续时间及对该平台的影响，三被告的主观过错程度，判决三被告立即停止对原告的不正当竞争行为；被告B公司、许某共同赔偿原告200万元，被告黄某承担20万元连带赔偿责任；三被告需在《法治日报》刊登声明消除影响。 |
| I. Click farming is essentially false advertising, not legitimate marketing | | 一、刷量行为是实质上的虚假宣传，并非正常营销手段 |
| According to the provisions of the Law on Anti-Unfair Competition, operators are prohibited from organizing false transactions or aiding other operators in disseminating false or misleading commercial promotions. In this case, although B Company and Xu claimed that the increased followers and likes they facilitated were genuine, and the relevant followers and liker accounts did exist. However, authenticity in data is not merely about the “quantity” being real. Rather, it should pertain more significantly to the “quality” of authenticity, meaning that changes in relevant data metrics should stem from the genuine intent of real platform users, not through fraudulent activities such as click farming. | | 根据《反不正当竞争法》的相关规定，经营者不得通过组织虚假交易等方式，帮助其他经营者进行虚假或者引人误解的商业宣传。本案中虽然B公司及许某辩称其帮助用户增加的粉丝量、点赞量等数据是真实的，相关粉丝、点赞账号是真实存在的。但数据的真实性并非仅指其“量”的真实性，更应当是指其“质”的真实性，即相关数据指标的变化应出于平台真实用户的真实意愿，而非通过实施刷量等作弊行为获得的虚假变动。 |
| ．．．．．． | | ．．．．．． |
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