Chinese tech blogger broke Xiaomi’s NDA of the Mi 10 Ultra — settled in court for 1 000 000 CNY
While China may seem like the wild west when it comes to NDAs or copyright laws, it seems that courts are taking the former a bit more seriously now. Just earlier this week we reported about a leaker being fined for revealing embargoed details about Genshin Impact‘s next update, and now we see a tech blogger being fined for breaking the embargo on the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra.
Gu Xu Yang, who’s the person behind Beautiful科技 (Beautiful Tech), was supposed to pay a USD 1 000 000 (~RM4.156 million) fine for breaking the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) on Xiaomi’s top-of-the-line flagship at the time. However Xiaomi later accepted a 1 million Chinese Yuan (~RM643 922) settlement and a public apology.
Tech media generally sign NDAs with hefty penalties in the event they are broken. It is essentially why a lot of top media will publish their reviews on the very same day at the exact same time. That’s because brands will often offer the opportunity for them to try out and experience stuff before they are announced. These irresponsible people will often times try to grab as much traffic as they can by publishing their reviews before the embargo lifts.
Overall, all I can say is “serves you right” to any tech media that gets served with a fine for breaking the embargo. Misreading the time zone for the embargo lift is one thing, but doing it on purpose is just inexcusable.
Pokdepinion: I am surprised that China courts are being active in this area. But then again, we are only seeing China companies getting this kind of success. Let’s see if they will be this efficient with foreign companies.
