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is “sapphire crystal lens” of iphone false advertisement? court: industry consensusnaming method don’t constitute as fraud
[2018-12-05]

“Leica camera”, “full screen display” and “face recognition” are the innovative selling points in the current mobile market. Do these selling points in ads, however, completely meet customer's needs? What if customer misunderstands such commercial ads? How will such case be handled? The answer to this question can be revealed by a case recently handled by Shanghai Jiading District People’s Court (the “Court”). In that case, a customer filed a lawsuit against an internet trade website for iphone false advertisement and claimed for compensation, but the Court rejected the claim.

[Case Overview]

Mr Zhou, the plaintiff in the case, intended to buy a mobile phone from JD.COM. After clicking product details of iPhone6 plus, he found in the product introduction that sapphire crystal was used as the lens of that phone. In consideration of high cost-effectiveness brought by that sapphire crystal lens, Mr Zhou immediately ordered and bought two iphones, both of which were iPhone6 plus (A1524) 64GB in space gray, with unit price of 5588 yuan and total price of 11176 yuan. When he received the products, however, he found that the so-called sapphire crystal lens was neither sapphire nor crystal, but glass. He thought he was cheated, and started to contact and negotiate with corresponding customer service center. But that negotiation failed. Then, he brought the trade company delivering the products to the Court on the ground of fraud by false advertisement. During court investigation, the respondent defended that its advertising was consistent with the contents provided by iphone manufacturer and with other promotion information; and that the expression of sapphire crystal lens in this case was not improper because sapphire in industry was artificial synthetic material, not natural.

[Case Study]

After hearing the case, the Court held that: first, the online shopping contract between the plaintiff and the respondent should be legal and valid and should be protected by laws; second, it was proved by the Explanation of the Nomenclature of Artificial Alumina Crystals for Industrial Use issued by the National Technical Committee on Synthetic Crystals of Standardization Administration of China that, “sapphire” in industry and semi-conductor fields, was specifically defined based on industry consensus, different from that in jewelry and jade industry. The Court therefore decided that the expression of “sapphire crystal lens” in the introduction to iphone performance did not constitute as a fraud in Article 55 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, and that the claim made by the plaintiff for “refund and three-time compensation” had no legal basis and thus rejected.

[Relevant Laws]

I.   Contract Law of the People's Republic of China

Article 8       A lawfully formed contract is legally binding on the parties. The parties shall perform their respective obligations in accordance with the contract, and neither party may arbitrarily amend or terminate the contract.

A lawfully formed contract is protected by law.

II. Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China

Article 90     Each party concerned shall provide evidence to prove the facts based on which such party concerned makes a claim or contradicts the claim of the other party concerned, save as otherwise provided by the law.

Where any party concerned fails to provide evidence or provides insufficient evidence to prove the facts before a judgment is made, the party concerned with the burden of proof shall bear adverse consequences.

 

(Drafted by: Hao Mengzhen from the Shanghai Jiading Court)

 

 

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The English version of this article, which is translated from the Chinese version by CTPC, is for reference only and shall be subject to the corresponding contents on the Chinese webpage.
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