Buying 'membership' can bypass the 'youth mode', Tencent sued a company and won a compensation of 3 million yuan

News from this site on October 16, according to Xinhua News Agency, recently, the People’s Court of Binhai New District, Tianjin concluded an unfair competition case involving the purchase of memberships to break the “youth model”.

Plaintiffs Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd., Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., and Tencent Digital (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. jointly operate “Tencent Video” and “Tencent NOW Live Broadcast”. The “Youth Live Broadcast” app is set up Mode", a pop-up window will appear when you open the home page. According to the App's service agreement, users are not allowed to interfere with or disrupt the normal operation of the software involved, nor are they allowed to add, delete, or change the functions or operating effects of the software, nor are they allowed to perform any behavior that is harmful to minors.

The defendant’s app operated by a company in Beijing used “ad blocking to automatically skip startup page ads” as a selling point to attract users to install it, and then forced users to turn on “accessibility permissions” for its software, allowing it to directly read users The content on the mobile phone screen and the control screen learn the user's operation behavior and automatically perform the operation.

The App regards the "Youth Mode" pop-up box automatic closing function as one of the "membership exclusive privileges" and uses "limited time free" as a gimmick to guide users to choose to turn on this function. Once it is turned on, the user can turn it on again When using online audio and video software such as "Tencent Video" and "Tencent NOW Live Broadcast", the App will automatically skip or block the entrance pop-up window for "Youth Mode", making it impossible for users to use "Youth Mode" through the homepage prompt.

After hearing, the court held that the accused behavior not only violated the relevant legal provisions on the protection of minors and the guidance of the relevant regulatory authorities, but also harmed the competitive interests of other operators and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. The function of skipping and blocking the "Youth Mode" entry pop-up window covers many third-party application software in the field of online audio and video, resulting in the failure of functional design to protect minors, destroying the market order and industry ecology of fair competition, and constituting unfair competition. . Considering that the plaintiff's products have a high reputation and have a great influence on the youth group, its "youth model" is a useful attempt to implement the anti-addiction system for minors, and the alleged behavior involved in the case has seriously affected the legitimate rights and interests of the plaintiff company and consumers; Moreover, the defendant's behavior has obvious commercial purposes. The App is available on multiple application markets, has a large number of downloads, a long duration, a large user group, and a large subjective fault; the App's blocking mode has a wide range of application and has an impact on social and public interests. And other factors. The court ordered the defendant to compensate the plaintiff for economic losses of 3 million yuan. After the verdict was pronounced in the case, neither the plaintiff nor the defendant appealed, and a pre-execution settlement was reached, which has been fulfilled.

The judge said that unfair competition practices that block "youth mode" should be severely cracked down to create a clean and upright Internet environment for minors. At the same time, parents should also be wary of such illegal apps that make the "youth model" ineffective. They should strengthen the education and guidance of minors and strengthen their own awareness.

This site noticed that the "China Minors Internet Usage Report (2022)" shows that the Internet usage rate of minors in the past six months reached 99.9%, and the proportion of using short video software exceeded 60%.

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