Diaoyutai State Guesthouse sued Philips

Recently, the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse Management Bureau under China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereafter as Diaoyutai State Guesthouse) sued Philips (China) Investment Co., Ltd. (hereafter as Philips) because the latter’s using “used by Diaoyutai State Guesthouse” words in publicity on its products, and the former considered the latter’s action as false advertising. Recently, Beijing Haidian District People’s Court accepted the case. 

According to the introduction, Philips advertised that its product air purifier is Diaoyutai State Guesthouse dedicated air purification equipment, and is used to offer services for heads of nations by Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. But Diaoyutai State Guesthouse said they had never purchased or used any air purifiers propagated by Philips, and did not know how Philips get the picture used in its propaganda. 

Diaoyutai State Guesthouse considered Philips’ action as false advertising for the purpose of enhancing product image. For this, lawyer of Diaoyutai State Guesthouse sent legal letters repeatedly to Philips asking them to explain the matter, but was rejected. So Diaoyutai State Guesthouse sued Philips to Haidian District People’s Court and asked for Philips to stop false advertising which involved the name of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, and then apologize and pay compensation of 100 thousand Yuan for its economic loss. 

Days before, Philips’ Greater China Official microblog issued a statement saying, about the issue that Diaoyutai State Guesthouse Management Bureau sued Philips, they attached great attention on it. And after the investigation, they had taken some measures to stop it. Recently, they made an apology to Diaoyutai State Guesthouse Management Bureau and they are actively communicating with them for the hope of resolving the problems. And the reporter searched and found that, there were no such propaganda image and words in the product introduction of Philips’ air purifier in Jingdong, T-mall and Suning. CIP News will follow the case.