iQiyi sued Blade Company, saying that several clients operated by Blade Company provide iQiyi member account rental services and make profits, seriously undermining iQiyi's member management system, causing huge losses to iQiyi, and constituting unfair competition for . So is Blade Company's operation illegal?
The defendant argued that iQiyi operates a video website, and Blade Company only provides game account rental services, and the two parties do not have a competitive relationship. The rights to video accounts shall be enjoyed by users. All iQiyi member accounts on the platform being sued were uploaded by users, which is a legitimate disciplinary action by users on their personal property. As the platform operator, Blade Company stopped the accused behavior after receiving the prosecution materials and removed all the film and television zones from the film and television zones, without any infringement.
Blade Company also advocates that iQiyi Company’s membership system is unreasonable, resulting in users’ demand for renting or leasing iQiyi video accounts. There are also other entities in the market that provide iQiyi video account rental services, so video account rental is a reasonable business model and has not had an actual impact on iQiyi Company.
The court held that Blade Company took advantage of the extensive member and non-member user base of iQiyi, and used the mentality of some users to speculate through the rental account, Blade Company's clients have gained a large number of users, and can charge users with high service fees to make profits. This behavior constituted unfair competition, and the plaintiff was eventually sentenced to compensate 2 million yuan for economic losses and reasonable expenses of 30,000 yuan.
