Recently, the Hangzhou Internet Court released 10 Cases of Judicial Protection of "Data Rights and Interests" heard by the court. The 10 model cases released this time cover cutting-edge topics in the field of data governance, including the legal nature and protection of rights and interests of data products, the tenure and classification of data rights and interests, and the protection of data rights and interests of stakeholders' information, aiming to further promote the healthy development of the data industry and empower the high-quality development of the digital economy.
Among these cases, an Unfair Competition Case involving a Social Platform Crawler filed by Llinks on behalf of the client in the Hangzhou Internet Court was selected.
In this case, the plaintiff was the operator of a social platform. The defendant used technical means to bypass the data protection measures of the platform operated by the plaintiff, to crawl the article information uploaded by users on the platform and use it commercially. After trial, the court ruled that the defendant should immediately stop the data scraping behavior, eliminate the impact and compensate for economic losses of 600,000 yuan. The case clarified that based on various factors such as the platform's investment in data and the value of data, the operator has competitive rights and interests in the platform's overall data resources. The defendant restricted or destroyed the functions or services of the network product through technical means, interfered with the operation model and profit mode of the platform, undermined the order and mechanism of competition, hindered the normal and orderly development of the network product market, and detracted from the well-being of consumers, and should be regulated by applying Article 12(2)(4) of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.
Click here to view the judgment.
