Chinese web service company Baidu sued for for unfair competition

BEIJING: A court in Shanghai has ordered Chinese search engine Baidu to pay 3.23 million yuan (USD 490,000) to a Shanghai company for unfair competition.

In April, Shanghai Hantao Information Consultancy Co. Ltd, operator of Dianping.com, sued Baidu and another online company Jietusoft, for copying comments and business information from Dianping.com onto Baidu's online applications and Jietusoft's online map service, which caused huge losses to Dianping.com.

Hantao demanded over 90 million yuan in compensation.

The Pudong District People's Court yesterday ruled that Baidu's action has decreased the number of Dianping.com's users and directed the flow to its apps, which has not only caused losses to Dianping.com, but also violated the principles of business ethics and honesty, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.

But the court believes that Jietusoft only used Baidu's online map service and did not infringe the rights of Dianping.com.