Eight months after the Shanghai Auto Show, Tesla female car owners' roof rights protection has made waves again. On December 24, the Beiguan District Court in Anyang City, Henan Province, held a hearing on Ms. Zhang v. Tesla's reputation infringement dispute.
The upstream news reporter learned that the focus of the trial was whether the Tesla side infringed on Ms. Zhang's reputation, whether it should stop the infringement, eliminate the impact and apologize.
▲ On December 24, after the trial, Ms. Zhang, who stood on the roof of Tesla's car to defend her rights, was interviewed by the media. Image credit/courtesy of the interviewee
According to public reports, on the afternoon of February 21, 2021, a traffic accident occurred at the intersection of Village Road in Anyang, Henan: a Tesla Model3, after rear-ending two cars waiting for a red light, hit a cement pier on the side of the road. At the time of the incident, there were 4 people in the car: Ms. Zhang, Ms. Zhang's parents, and Ms. Zhang's niece. In the accident, Ms. Zhang's parents were hospitalized, and Ms. Zhang and her niece were overly frightened.
The traffic police determined that Ms. Zhang's father was fully responsible for the accident, but Ms. Zhang believed that it was caused by the brake failure. After the accident to April 19, Ms. Zhang repeatedly came to Tesla's Zhengzhou 4S store to defend her rights. Ms. Zhang said that after being prevaricated by the other party, she defended her rights at the door of 4S point: body painting, pulling banners, and sitting on the roof. On April 19, at the Tesla booth of the Shanghai Auto Show, Ms. Zhang wore a T-shirt printed with "brake failure", climbed on the roof of the car to defend her rights, and was administratively detained by the Shanghai police for 5 days.
▲ On April 19, at the Shanghai Auto Show, Tesla rights defenders stood on the exhibition car, and the white T-shirt was printed with "brake failure". Image source/network
The detention of the roof rights protection has aroused great concern in public opinion, and the two sides have gone to court.
On December 24, Ms. Zhang v. Tesla's dispute over the right to reputation was heard at the Beiguan District Court in Anyang City, Henan Province. The plaintiff is Ms. Zhang, Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co., Ltd., and Tao Lin, vice president of Tesla's external affairs, was listed as defendants.
At the trial, Ms. Zhang's lawyer Fu Jian said that on April 19, Vice President Tao Lin said in an interview with the media: "The recent negatives are all contributed by her (referring to the plaintiff)", "only willing to pay high compensation", "I must insist on high compensation", "I think she is very professional, there should be (people) behind her." On April 28, Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.'s official Microblog "Tesla" posted that Ms. Zhang's husband said that "there is a 'team' from Beijing around her to assist, and when she 'cooperates' with others, she can only obey the help of others, and the 'team' said that it can help it 'whitewash' and meet its demands..."
Fu Jian said that without any evidence, Tao Lin's false statements have had a serious impact on the work and life of Ms. Zhang and her family. In order to safeguard her legitimate rights and interests, Ms. Zhang requested that the legal responsibility of relevant personnel be investigated in accordance with the law, and at the opening of the trial, Ms. Zhang requested the court to order the defendant to immediately stop infringing on the plaintiff's right to reputation and eliminate the impact, and to apologize in writing to him, and published an announcement to apologize to the plaintiff in the national media, and at the same time published a written apology letter to the plaintiff on her official Weibo (Weibo was at the top for 30 consecutive days), and paid the plaintiff 500,000 yuan in moral damages.
The defendant Tesla said that the remarks involved in the case were all based on facts, such as: "the plaintiff has the assistance of a team from Beijing" mentioned in Weibo, "the team can help him wash his white and meet his demands", "he can only obey when he cooperates with others and is helped by others". In addition, based on the fact that the plaintiff itself recognized that the "rights protection" was too impulsive and the behavior was excessive, in order to clarify the basic situation of the case and safeguard its own legitimate rights and interests, the respondent objectively reflected the above facts, and there was no insult or slander to the plaintiff, let alone an illegal infringement of the plaintiff's right to reputation.
▲ On April 19, at the Shanghai Auto Show, Tesla rights defenders stood on the exhibition car and shouted "Tesla brake failure". Image source/network
Tesla's side said that due to the plaintiff's behavior, Tesla's side has suffered huge economic losses, conservatively estimated to be over 100 million. Although tesla has filed a rights protection lawsuit with the court in this regard, demanding that Ms. Zhang compensate 5 million yuan for economic losses, before filing a lawsuit to seek public relief, the respondent's clarification of the incident is a private remedy.
Tesla's side said that Tao Lin's remarks were typical job behavior.
In addition, Fu Jian introduced that on April 21, the Zhengzhou Zhengdong New District Market Supervision Bureau ordered Tesla Auto Sales Service (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. to unconditionally provide the owner with driving data half an hour before the accident. Since the accident, Ms. Zhang has been asking Tesla to provide complete driving data. At present, Ms. Zhang has only received one copy of the driving data, which she believes is incomplete and continues to ask Tesla to provide complete driving data.
Upstream journalist Niu Tai