Tesla Sues Model S Owner for Infringing Reputation, Claiming 5.05 Million Yuan

A Chinese Tesla Model S owner who formerly won a fraud case against the EV firm posted on Weibo on Sunday, saying that he has been sued by Tesla for infringing the firm’s reputation. According to the indictment posted by the car owner, Tesla asked him to immediately delete all infringing content and comments on Weibo, claiming a total of 5.05 million yuan ($781,685).

The car owner then posted on Weibo saying his bank account has been frozen by Tesla and cannot be used.

According to the indictment released by the car owner, Tesla has four claims: First, the defendant, namely the car owner, needs to immediately stop the infringement and delete all related content and comments published on the Sina Weibo platform; second, the defendant has to apologize to the two plaintiffs, namely Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co.,Ltd. and Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., on his personal Weibo for 30 days to eliminate the adverse effects; third, the defendant has to compensate Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. for economic losses of 5 million yuan; fourth, the defendant is ordered to bear the reasonable rights protection expenditure of Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. of 50,000 yuan. The total claim is 5.05 million yuan.

The indictment shows that Tesla believes that since the beginning of 2020, the car owner has made long-term remarks denigrating and belittling the EV firm through posts on his Weibo account, and his behavior has seriously infringed Tesla’s corporate reputation rights.

Regarding Tesla’s accusation, the car owner posted on social media that Tesla has failed the fraud case, which is an established fact, and that his comments on Tesla are right. As for Tesla’s claim of 5.05 million yuan, the owner wrote, “Tesla means that although the company cheated its customer, although it should pay the customer more than one million yuan, although the customer is a victim, the customer can’t say bad things about Tesla. If a customer does say something, he has to pay five or six million yuan!”

SEE ALSO: Tesla Sentenced to Refund Model S Owner for Fraud

Previously, after Tesla was exposed selling a second-hand Tesla Model S that had a major accident, the car owner sued the company. Tesla was then sentenced to refund a total of four times the amount the car owner originally spent on the vehicle, with a total refund of 1,518,800 yuan.