The Tesla "brake gate" incident, which lasted for three years, has made new progress.
According to a report by First Financial, a second instance judgment has been reached in the reputation infringement case between Tesla and Li from Xi'an. Li should compensate Tesla for the amount from 2000 yuan in the first instance to 70000 yuan.
At the same time, the judicial appraisal agency commissioned by the court conducted an appraisal of the involved vehicle, and the appraisal opinion is that the Tesla vehicle's braking system is currently in normal and effective technical condition without any faults, and there is no situation where the brake pedal cannot be pressed or the braking efficiency decreases, which meets relevant technical standards.
Tesla claims that the incident caused losses of over 100 million yuan
Li from Xi'an was involved in a traffic accident while driving a Tesla in March 2021. On April 19, 2021, Li from Xi'an and Zhang from Henan appeared at the Tesla booth at the Shanghai Auto Show wearing clothing with the words "brake failure". On that day, Zhang from Henan was administratively detained by the Qingpu Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau for disrupting public order, while Li from Xi'an was given an administrative warning.
In November 2023, Tesla filed a lawsuit against a female car owner in Xi'an for infringement of her reputation rights in the "Shanghai Auto Show Incident". The court made a first instance judgment and found that Li in Xi'an was responsible for the infringement of her reputation. She must publicly apologize to Tesla and compensate for the losses, while also bearing the vehicle appraisal fee.
During the trial of the case, the court commissioned a judicial appraisal agency to conduct an appraisal of the vehicle. The appraisal opinion is that the current technical condition of the Tesla Model 3's braking system is normal, effective, and free of faults, and there is no situation where the brake pedal cannot be pressed or the braking efficiency decreases. It meets the relevant technical standards of "Technical Conditions for Motor Vehicle Operation Safety" and "Technical Inspection Items and Methods for Motor Vehicle Safety".
First instance judgment source: First Financial
According to the court judgment, the defendant Li shall delete all remarks and comments that damage the reputation of the plaintiff Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. published on Sina Weibo within ten days from the effective date of this judgment, and apologize to the plaintiff Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. in writing on Sina Weibo (subject to the content reviewed by the people's court), and continuously publicize for no less than fifteen days; The defendant Li shall compensate the plaintiff Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. for economic losses and litigation costs of 2000 yuan.
The case acceptance fee is 25500 yuan (prepaid by the plaintiff), with the plaintiff bearing 25390 yuan and the defendant bearing 110 yuan; The appraisal fee of 20000 yuan (prepaid by the plaintiff) shall be borne by the defendant, and the defendant shall pay the plaintiff together with the above-mentioned payment.
It is understood that Tesla demanded a compensation of 5 million yuan from Li in the first instance, but the amount of compensation awarded was only 2000 yuan. According to a report by China Newsweek, on November 27, 2023, Tesla stated that the incident had caused significant losses to the company, with judicial evaluation agencies assessing Tesla's order and goodwill losses to be over 100 million yuan. At that time, Tesla stated that it would appeal.
Henan Zhang was sentenced to apologize and compensate 170000 yuan in the first instance
At the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, a Henan female car who climbed onto the roof of a Tesla claimed that a related case was also sentenced in the first instance on May 30th of this year.
On May 30th, the case of Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and a female car claiming a certain reputation right dispute was sentenced in the first instance by the People's Court of Qingpu District, Shanghai. According to the verdict, the female car owner publicly issued an apology statement to compensate Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. for a total of 172000 yuan in losses.
The court held that the female car's claim that a certain act was carried out recklessly without any objective basis to prove the brake failure of the vehicle involved in the case constitutes defamation. At the same time, knowing that there was no conclusive evidence, when making statements to the public, he did not pay attention to using objective and fair language. He chose the Shanghai Auto Show media day to the Tesla booth area, pre made and dressed in a T-shirt with the words "brake failure" printed on it, climbed onto the roof of the exhibition car and shouted "Tesla brake failure". With the help of on-site media, he quickly and widely spread this unrealistic information. His words and actions clearly had subjective intention and fault of tarnishing the reputation of Tesla Shanghai company.
Shanghai Securities Journal
According to a report by Shanghai Securities News, Tesla China stated that according to an evaluation report issued by a judicial evaluation agency, the "Shanghai Auto Show incident" caused Tesla to suffer direct losses of over 170 million yuan in orders and tens of millions of yuan in goodwill losses. After this incident, there were several accidents where car owners claimed to have "brake failure", and the final appraisal results made by professional appraisal agencies showed that the cause of the accidents was not related to the Tesla vehicle itself.
In addition, the media person who organized and planned the Tesla Shanghai Auto Show incident, Feng, was sentenced to apologize and compensate Tesla. The court found that media person Feng committed illegal acts of disrupting public order in the "Shanghai Auto Show Incident" on April 19, 2021, and played a role in organizing and planning the incident.
At the same time, due to Feng's long-term behavior of attacking Tesla and tarnishing Tesla's reputation on Weibo, the court ordered him to apologize to Tesla on his Weibo account and Rule of Law Daily, and compensate for losses of 250000 yuan.
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