Company Fined 3 Million Yuan for Selling Food Delivery Order-Snatching Devices
On.cc · 1 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
China's Supreme People's Court recently published typical cases of anti-unfair competition enforcement, with one case involving a company that sold physical exploitation devices for food delivery platforms garnering significant attention. An electronics company was found to have been producing and selling automated clicking devices for an extended period, generating sales revenue of several million yuan. The court determined this conduct constituted unfair competition and ordered compensation of 3 million yuan (approximately 3.51 million Hong Kong dollars), with the judgment now in effect.
Key Points
- Supreme People's Court published anti-unfair competition typical cases, with physical cheating device case attracting public attention
- Electronics company engaged in long-term production and sales of order-snatching devices with instructional videos, accumulating several million yuan in sales
- Delivery riders clip the clicking device onto their smartphones to automatically tap and quickly snatch orders without hacking platform code
- Court ruled devices circumvent platform operational rules, disrupt dispatch algorithms, and cause order allocation mechanism failures
- Platform launched "secondary order allocation" mechanism where system intelligently assigns orders based on rider suitability
Why It Matters
This case establishes the principle of "algorithm for good" in the platform economy, signaling that technological solutions circumventing fair competition rules will face legal consequences. For Hong Kong's growing food delivery market, such rulings could influence how local platforms enforce fair competition among delivery riders and protect compliant workers' earnings .
This case establishes the principle of "algorithm for good" in the platform economy, signaling that technological solutions circumventing fair competition rules will face legal consequences. For Hong Kong's growing food delivery market, such rulings could influence how local platforms enforce fair competition among delivery riders and protect compliant workers' earnings .