Pinduoduo escapes cheating verdict but told to pay compensation

Pinduoduo was ordered to pay 400 yuan (US$59.72) in compensation to a local resident by the Shanghai Changning People's Court on Tuesday, though the accuser's claims of cheating by the Chinese e-commerce giant were dismissed.

The resident, surnamed Liu, who is a lawyer, took part in the platform's promotion activity "bargain for free goods" in March 2021.

The promotion basically involved people asking friends to click on the link they send, following which the price of goods they wanted to buy would be slashed.

If the number of people they invited was high enough, the platform would even send them the goods for free.

Liu tried many times, asking his friends to help him steal a bargain, but he still needed to cut down 0.9 percent.

Frustrated, he began suspecting that Pinduoduo's online services were violating the principle of good faith, using false data and concealing rules to cheat their customers.

As a result, Liu sued Pinduoduo's operating company, Shanghai Xunmeng Information Technology Co.

However, the Shanghai Changning People's Court judged that what the company's actions during the promotion did not amount to swindling, as alleged by Liu, but they did infringe on his right to know.

So, the judge ordered the company to pay 400 yuan in compensation to Liu, whose other claims were also dismissed.

The court said that if operators can disclose relevant information to consumers in a timely, accurate and intuitive manner, it can reduce consumers' expenditure on time, energy, connections, and traffic.

Although these losses do not constitute physical damage to the user's existing property, they do have property attributes from the perspective of the content of the loss and should be protected.