On March 14, Tesla won a lawsuit against prominent car columnist and TikTok star Boss Cai for damaging Tesla’s reputation.
In June 2022, Tesla sued Boss Cai (his real name is Cai Jia) for spreading false rumors in videos posted on the social network Douyin (Chinese equivalent of TikTok) and demanded $720,000 in damages.
In October, a court found that the content of the video was fabricated to insult and defame Tesla. Blogger Boss Cai was ordered to apologize to Tesla and compensate them for their losses. Boss Cai filed an appeal, but the court upheld the original verdict. Therefore, Boss Cai will publicly apologize to Tesla within 15 days.
The incident began in 2021 when Boss Cai posted a video alleging that a friend who worked as a Tesla supplier had identified some irregularities in their cooperation with suppliers. He claimed that while building the Tesla plant in Shanghai, the company repeatedly put pressure on its suppliers to cut prices. In addition, according to friend Boss Cai, Tesla’s quality inspectors did a poor job and instead used their position for personal advantage.
According to court documents, it was not possible to invite this “friend” to testify in court, as Boss Cai claimed to have forgotten the friend’s name due to stress.
Tesla stated that Boss Cai was unable to provide evidence to support the authenticity of the content described in the video. In addition, Boss Cai promoted his company through videos and recruited followers.
