Top court steps up protection of firms' reputation rights

Individuals or organizations maliciously spreading false information in cyberspace that harms the reputation of enterprises and affects their normal operations should be severely punished, China's top court has said.

The Supreme People's Court urged courts nationwide to strictly adhere to the requirement as it disclosed six concluded cases on Monday.

"Protecting the reputation rights of companies according to law is essential to building a law-based business environment," the top court said in a statement.

The rapidly developing online media have enriched the people's spiritual life and played a positive role in information dissemination, resource sharing and social supervision, according to the statement.

However, the top court strongly opposes online defamation of enterprises' reputation and will severely punish such behaviors, which infringe upon the lawful interests of the enterprises, it added.

The statement said some courts have found that a few individuals and organizations, driven by the desire to attract public attention and gain more online views, post false content about enterprises on the internet, tarnishing the enterprises' corporate reputation and disrupting their normal business operations.

In one case disclosed on Monday, a media group was ordered by a grassroots court to apologize and compensate a beverage enterprise due to the harm caused by an online article of the media group.

The beverage company, when asked by the media group whether it would lay off employees, responded by saying "not at the moment". However, in order to attract more online views, the media group posted an article claiming that the company was laying off 20 percent of its employees.

The article was widely shared on various online platforms, leading the beverage company to initiate a lawsuit and seek compensation.

After a trial, the grassroots court decided that the beverage enterprise, as a civil entity, has the right to reputation, and the report's negative evaluation damaged the company's reputation and infringed upon its reputation rights. The court ruled that the media group should be held liable for its online misconduct and bear responsibility for compensation.

The ruling not only protected the legitimate rights and interests of the beverage company, but also helped regulate the behavior of online media, the court said.

The other cases that were disclosed involved enterprises in the fields of real estate brokerage, technology and credit rating, which the top court said reflected the judicial efforts to fully and equally protect the reputation of every market entity in a timely manner.