Text/Dr. Martin Teng

Produced by Che Tuteng, please indicate the source when reprinting

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Dantes It seems to be a natural situation for La and Pinduoduo to intersect and fall out with each other.

On August 14, Tesla stated that a Pinduoduo platform consumer from Wuhan allegedly violated the "no resale" clause in the order terms and unilaterally closed the order.

In response, Pinduoduo responded very strongly and expressed its support for consumers to safeguard their rights in accordance with the law.

Two days later, on August 16, a Pinduoduo group-buying car owner from Shanghai successfully picked up the car and completed insurance procedures for the vehicle.

Pinduoduo said that the company has confirmed from car owners in Wuhan that their ordering and payment processes are exactly the same as those for car owners in Shanghai. The consumers themselves buy the cars and use them for themselves, without any Willingness and intent to resell.

So, have Wuhan car owners been unfairly treated by Tesla? Who will the court most likely side with?

In the entire incident, Tesla's "domineering" attitude has become one of the most interesting details.

▌Group purchase of Tesla, what did Pinduoduo do?

Speaking of which, this group buying event started on July 21 this year. The initiator is a chain car sales platform called "Yimaiche", and together with Pinduoduo, launched a "group buying event for 10,000 people": a group purchase of Tesla Model 3 for 251,800 yuan, model 2019 standard range rear-wheel drive Upgraded version.

If you buy it on Tesla’s official website, the official guide price of this model is 291,800 yuan. On this basis, there is a new energy vehicle subsidy of 20,300 yuan, and the final purchase price of the car for consumers is 271,600 yuan. . In this group buying event, Pinduoduo platform subsidized about 20,000 yuan on top of this, so the final price of Model 3 was 251,800 yuan.

Many consumers immediately consider the authenticity of the vehicle. After all, in the past, Pinduoduo has always had some connection with “shanzhai”.

But this time, it’s different.

Pinduoduo said, “The vehicles are genuine and the subsidies are real.”

This is true, just look at the car purchase process.

The car purchase process is the same as that of ordinary consumers. Consumers who participate in group purchases need to place their orders on Tesla’s official platform. The only difference is that in the payment process, payment will be made by Yibuya or Pinduoduo’s account. .

This is very clear. Don’t worry that this is a “Pinduoduo version” Model 3. It is Tesla’s official Model 3. The channels and procedures are all Tesla’s. Duoduo's role is just to subsidize.

At this point, the main dispute in the story-whether Pinduoduo is involved in "resale" has generally come to light.

▌Is Pinduoduo “reselling”?

The car belongs to Tesla, and the purchase is completed by the consumer himself. The sales contract is signed directly by the car owner and Tesla. Pinduoduo just paid the price. So, does the term "resale" mean anything? Established?

Some people in the industry said that this still needs further determination, and ultimately it depends on the attitude of the court.

In other words, there are two possibilities here: if the court determines that it constitutes a "resale act", then the relevant terms should be respected, and it is legal to terminate the contract according to the terms of the contract; if it cannot be determined to be a "resale act", Then Tesla should bear liability for breach of contract.

However, some lawyers have a clear attitude and believe that the "resale" theory is not valid.

“The agreement itself is not illegal and is legal and valid. However, consumers place orders on Tesla’s official website and have Pinduoduo or platform merchants pay for them in the final payment process. This cannot be considered as Lawyer Zhao Zhanhan, deputy director of Beijing Zhilin Law Firm, said, "As long as the consumer places the order and completes the payment, Tesla should fulfill the agreement. There is no legal basis for canceling the order and refusing to deliver the vehicle. , constitutes a breach of contract.

”

It should be pointed out that Tesla’s order terms do not prohibit consumers from using third parties to pay for cars.

Another question is whether Pinduoduo is completely Legal?

As mentioned above, Pinduoduo’s role is to subsidize, and this behavior is not prohibited by law.

However, Pinduoduo’s intention is also known to everyone: take. Tesla's popularity diverts traffic and subsidizes exchange traffic. This actually seems to constitute an infringement of Tesla's rights. In theory, Tesla has the right to apply for compensation.

In this group purchase, Pinduoduo Bicycle. The subsidy is 20,000 yuan, and 5 cars per unit have attracted more than 30,000 people to sign up. Rough calculation (if the Wuhan car owner finally succeeds in the transaction), the cost of 100,000 yuan will attract (or attract new people) 30,000 people, on average. The cost per lead (user) is only 3.33 yuan, which is a good deal for Pinduoduo, and it must be said that a large part of it is due to Tesla’s brand effect.

▌ Tesla’s anger? But it caused public outrage?

In this story, consumers, Pinduoduo, and Tesla announced the termination of the transaction, which is Tesla’s side. .

Tesla was rude and issued a statement saying: “It has no cooperation with Yimaiche or Pinduoduo regarding this group buying activity, nor has it had any cooperation with Yimaiche or Pinduoduo. We have not used any form of entrusted sales service, nor have we sold any vehicles produced by our company to Yimaiche or Pinduoduo for this group buying event. Tesla reserves the right to pursue legal liability from relevant parties. Tesla does not assume any responsibility if any disputes arise or the rights and interests of consumers are damaged due to the above-mentioned group buying activities.

Tesla’s attitude is easy to understand. As a luxury brand, it must be eager to distance itself from e-commerce websites like Pinduoduo that focus on bottom-line consumers and low-price copycat consumption.

In fact, Tesla is not the first brand to “draw a clear line” with Pinduoduo.

In October 2019, after Pinduoduo launched La Mer with a 15% discount on La Mer, it issued a statement recommending consumers to purchase from regular channels. SK-II’s official WeChat account also issued a similar announcement.

In the same month, Three Squirrels stated that Pinduoduo would not authorize Pinduoduo to sell goods and would take legal action to defend its rights.

In November 2019, Dyson reminded consumers on Weibo that Pinduoduo is not an official authorized channel of Dyson, and it is recommended to purchase through regular channels.

In June 2020, memory brand ADATA Technology issued an announcement stating that ADATA memory sold by Pinduoduo was supplied through unauthorized channels.

In June 2020, Tencent & Nintendo stated that Pinduoduo and its merchants were not authorized and recommended that consumers purchase Switch game consoles through legally authorized channels.

The above and so on are too numerous to mention. The anger of big brands towards Pinduoduo is generally the same.

However, anger is the same in the world, but the way to express anger is different.

Different from the above-mentioned "public declaration of war" between La Mer, Dyson and Pinduoduo, Tesla's approach is to start from consumers and simply and crudely cancel orders directly to car owners. This is Isn’t it a “big shop bully”?

The anger towards e-commerce platforms is understandable, but "the wrongdoers have their own owners and the debtors have their owners." You can file a lawsuit with the company, but you can't chill the hearts of consumers.

The Wuhan car owner’s case has implicated many of Tesla’s “crimes” in China. For example, after Tesla entered China, the price of Model 3 has been repeatedly reduced. At present, it has been directly reduced to 290,000 yuan in order to obtain subsidies. The first batch of car owners lost tens of thousands of yuan.

In terms of some relevant rules, Tesla also treats Chinese and American consumers differently.

Tesla officials wrote in the regulations on order cancellation in China, “Any order that our company believes is for resale or has other non-bona fide purposes, our company has the right to unilaterally cancel it. Terminate the agreement" and the deposit will not be refunded.

In sharp contrast, the relevant rules of Tesla's US area are: "If Tesla believes that the customer has malicious intent and cancels the order, it needs to return the deposit to the consumer."

The incident continues to ferment.

At present, the pressure is all on Tesla. Pinduoduo’s ranking is not high to begin with, and people don’t expect much from it, so it won’t be the loser. However, Tesla, which has gained a lot of aura, still has little experience in China. How to deal with this public relations crisis is a matter of future.

So what do you think of this incident?

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.