On September 22, Li Auto's legal department posted on Weibo announcing that the company recently received a final court judgment. The court determined that the holder of Weibo account "A5W工," identified as Zhang, maliciously published blog posts and videos that distorted facts and deliberately vilified Li Auto's MEGA model one day before the model's official launch, seeking improper online traffic. Zhang and the affiliated MCN agency, a Shanghai-based brand management company, constituted joint infringement and should bear legal liability for infringement.
According to the court's findings, on February 29, 2024, at 22:02, defendant Zhang published a Weibo post that darkened the Li Auto MEGA promotional video and altered the original video's soundtrack. The Weibo text contained extensive insulting content that maliciously vilified the Li Auto MEGA model. The defendant Shanghai brand management company, as an MCN agency, allowed the infringement impact to expand and bears joint infringement liability with Zhang. The court's final judgment ordered Zhang and the contracted MCN agency to post a public apology at the top of their network accounts and compensate Li Auto for corresponding economic losses and reasonable rights protection expenses.
In response, Li Auto issued a statement emphasizing that cyberspace is not beyond the reach of law. For any illegal behavior involving distorting facts and publishing insulting remarks, the company will not only resolutely pursue legal responsibility to protect Li Auto's legitimate rights and interests, but will also actively respond to the six-department special rectification campaign. The company will severely crack down on various malicious defamation, false information dissemination, and illegal profit-seeking behaviors, continuously helping to purify the automotive industry's online public opinion environment, maintain fair and orderly market competition, and protect consumers' legitimate rights and the healthy development of the industry.