When your short video account receives such a private message, it does not charge any fees, it can make you an amateur internet celebrity, and you can also bring goods to make money, will you be moved?
There is an mcn agency, which is a media company that provides content planning, production, publicity and promotion services for Internet celebrities and self-media. It proposed generous signing conditions to 9 young girls and wanted to turn them into amateur Internet celebrities. However, shortly after signing the contract, the mcn company sued the girls separately in court, claiming a total of hundreds of thousands of yuan. Nine cases with similar circumstances caught the judge's attention.
Looking through the case file materials, Judge Wei Ruonan learned that the defendant in this contract dispute case was a 19-year-old girl. The person who sued her was an MCN company, demanding hundreds of thousands of liquidated damages. In addition to the 19-year-old girl, the mcn company also sued eight other girls in their 20s.
Xiaotang from Heze, Shandong is one of the defendants in these cases. What exactly has she experienced? The story begins with a private message she received on her social platform account in October 2023.
Xiaotang (pseudonym): I was preparing to take the postgraduate entrance examination. When I was browsing Douyin, a person sent me a private message, saying that he was from MCN and wanted to sign a contract with me to see if my Douyin shooting was good.
Xiaotang usually likes to shoot some short videos to record his life and publish them on his social platform account. The staff of mcn company told Xiaotang that after building it, she would have the opportunity to become an Internet celebrity. The staff of
told Xiaotang that their business is to incubate high-quality IP for amateurs. They also emphasized that they have "no live broadcast, no charges, the company provides one-on-one services, built from scratch, all-inclusive." This made Xiaotang, who was preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination, excited. She usually had plenty of time, and she just wanted to find a part-time job.
Subsequently, the mcn company introduced the company's business to Xiaotang in more detail. In addition, the company also promised: Xiaotang does not need to spend a penny and does not have to worry at all.
During the communication process, the mcn company also planned a way for Xiaotang to make money. For example, she can share good things and if someone buys them, she will get a commission. If the traffic is good, some merchants will contact her to share their products, and she can earn tens of thousands of yuan in advertising fees.
However, Xiaotang also expressed concern, what will be the consequences if it is not done well? The other party told her that the account was provided by the company, and if she didn't do well, she only needed to return the account to the company.
Xiaotang questioned some terms in the contract. For example, the contract stipulates that bloggers must live broadcast no less than 24 days a month and live broadcast for no less than 3 hours every day. Because Xiaotang lives in a dormitory, there is no live broadcast environment. In this regard, the company promised Xiaotang that there was no need for live broadcasts; for another example, the contract stipulated that the number of short videos that bloggers should update every month should not be less than 30. The company explained that Xiaotang could do it at a suitable time. This contract It's just a template and has no real effect.
There is indeed a dedicated person to provide operation services.
The abnormality slowly emerged.
After Xiaotang joined a group chat, she found that other people in the group were dedicated to providing operation services for her. This made her feel that it was still a long way from becoming an Internet celebrity. One step closer. Next, as promised by the mcn company, they began to conduct some training and filming for Xiaotang, and she also released some videos as requested by the other party. But slowly, she felt something was wrong.
After Xiaotang joins the group chat, the company's operations staff often post some documents in the group, such as "live broadcast speech structure and logic template". The operations staff said that these were the company's online courses, which required Xiaotang to take time to study, and asked her to confirm receipt of the courses and reply. Xiaotang discovered that the documents for these training courses can actually be found online.
After studying these documents, the operation staff also made an appointment with a local photographer in Heze for Xiaotang to shoot videos.After each shooting, the operator will send a screenshot of the transfer in the group, stating that this is the shooting service fee, including venue fees, photographer fees, etc., and ask Xiaotang to confirm.
Although Xiaotang confirmed the cost in the group, he still raised questions, why does the filming cost so much? The operation staff of
told Xiaotang that the company invested in Doujia for her, which meant spending money to buy traffic for her. They also sent screenshots of the cost of purchasing traffic to the group for her to confirm.
In early December 2023, just over a month after signing the contract, the company required Xiaotang to live broadcast an active account. However, this request was different from the promise the company manager had given her before, so Xiaotang refused and proposed to terminate the contract. Unexpectedly, a few days later, she was taken to court and was claimed for liquidated damages, economic losses, and attorney fees totaling more than 260,000 yuan.
In addition to Xiaotang, the mcn company also sued eight other contracted anchors. Some of them refused to live broadcast like Xiaotang, and some felt that the company had not formally terminated the contract. They come from Shandong, Henan and other places. A claim of more than 200,000 yuan is undoubtedly a huge amount for these girls in their 20s. The
case is heard in court. Is the
female online anchor in breach of contract?
Soon, these cases will be heard in court one after another. So, did these girls breach the contract? Will mcn's claim for compensation be supported by the court?
Judge Wei Ruonan of the People's Court of Daxing District, Beijing: The key points of dispute are: one is whether the defendant's refusal to live broadcast constitutes a breach of contract; the other is whether these related expenses were actually spent and, if so, which party should pay for them bear?
Both the plaintiff and the defendant launched a fierce debate around the focus of the dispute. The plaintiff mcn Company believed that they signed a contract with the defendant, which stipulated that the defendant should conduct live broadcast, but the defendant refused to perform the live broadcast obligation and therefore should bear liquidated damages. Due to the defendant's breach of contract, the company's expenses for operating the account should also be borne by the defendant.
Defendant Xiaotang did not agree with this. She believed that the two parties had already agreed in previous communication that there was no need for live broadcast, so she did not breach the contract. As for the expenses that mcn asked itself to confirm, they were exaggerated.
Wei Ruonan, judge of the People's Court of Daxing District, Beijing: The photographer would take her to some free places, such as parks or some Internet celebrity stores. There is no studio model at all, and there is no relevant photography team. There is only one photographer. Based on their actual experience at the time, it was definitely not worth the money.
Defendant Xiaotang added the contact information of the photographer. After communication, he found that the photographer was only part-time and settled on a pay-per-view basis, which only cost one or two hundred yuan each time.
So, does the defendant constitute a breach of contract? How is the plaintiff mcn company's performance of the contract? Are the expenses paid by the company in the group reasonable?
The court held that during the communication between the plaintiff and the defendant before signing the contract, mcn promised the other party many times that the other party did not need to live broadcast, and that the account could do it if it liked it, and would return it to the company if it did not. However, it now claimed that the other party's refusal to live broadcast and the initiative to terminate the contract was a breach of contract. , and the claim for liquidated damages has no basis.
Judging from the performance of the contract, the court held that mcn did not provide "all-round" training and incubation to the contracted anchors as stipulated in the contract, but only sent a few documents, which was not enough to prove that it had done all the training and incubation. Corresponding contractual obligations of incubation.
Regarding the fees claimed by the plaintiff mcn for purchasing accounts, voting for Doujia, and filming, the court held that these fees were not in line with the general market price, and the identity of the recipient of the payment was unknown; the cost of purchasing Doujia services could not be proven by the company. The court did not support the actual expenditure and the use of the anchor’s account to divert traffic.
Judge Wei Ruonan’s investigation found that in February 2024, the person in charge of the mcn company and another shareholder established another institution in Shandong to carry out the same business.
After the judge’s interpretation of the law, the plaintiff mcn filed an application to withdraw the lawsuit. At present, the court has transferred relevant clues to the case to the public security organs.
Revealing the Routine of “Building Internet Celebrities”
In Judge Wei Ruonan’s view, these unscrupulous mcn companies use the routine of “signing contracts in the short term and then suing to court.” The first step in the
routine is to "cast a wide net" to find the target.
The second step of the routine is that these companies claim to be "no live broadcast, no fees, one-to-one professional creation of amateur Internet celebrities."
The third step of the routine is that these companies will invite contracted anchors to join the "one-on-one operation service group". Send some documents to the group as training for the anchors, and after filming and streaming, ask them to confirm various high expenses in the group chat.
The fourth step is that these mcn companies move out the contract terms and require the contracted anchors to live broadcast. After being refused, they file a lawsuit and require the anchors to compensate for liquidated damages and bear various expenses.
Legal experts believe that the real purpose of such bad mcn companies is not to create Internet celebrities, but to obtain liquidated damages through litigation and other means.
Zhu Wei, associate professor at China University of Political Science and Law: On the surface, this contract is a civil contract. It is a contract similar to an economic contract, an agency contract, and a commission contract. But it does not actually fulfill the contract. It turns the so-called signee into an Internet celebrity or an Internet marketer. The fundamental purpose is to "die" her in this place. As long as there is any breach of contract, it will be passed. Litigation and other related means can be used to obtain high liquidated damages, so the purpose of signing a contract is to obtain liquidated damages in the end.
According to legal experts, such contracts with impure purposes often hide some traps. Once signed, it is difficult to win the lawsuit when faced with litigation.
Associate Professor at China University of Political Science and Law Zhu Wei: Why is it so difficult to win? Because when the contract was signed, the important terms were confirmed and agreed upon, and did not violate the current mandatory provisions of the law. But why is it unfair? Because the rights and obligations are extremely unequal. For example, if you are allowed to broadcast for 8 or 10 hours a day, MCN does not have to bear any cost, as long as the mobile phone has power, so many amateurs have signed the contract, only to find out that they have been cheated during the actual performance of the contract. When you want to break the contract, you find that the breach of contract clause is very harsh.
Legal experts remind that for young people who want to engage in the anchor industry, they must rationally identify the professionalism and capabilities of the mcn company, weigh their own time and energy and the contract stipulations. Before signing the contract, they must seek the opinions of their teachers, relatives and friends, and cannot just listen to the mcn company. Oral promises may be made by chance, which will eventually burden oneself with heavy liquidated damages and affect one's future.
Comprehensive CCTV News
Source: CCTV
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