Lawyer talks about Xinjiang cotton incident: celebrity terminates contract due to brand improper remarks without compensation

report on March 26 On March 25, an extremely "lively" day in the entertainment industry, a large number of celebrities announced the termination of endorsement cooperation with their own brands, causing great turmoil on the brand side. Among them, Nike Adidas stock price plummeted , The market value has evaporated 73.3 billion! The cause of

is a statement on the official website of the well-known clothing chain H&M Group, which made a fuss about the so-called "forced labor" and "religious discrimination" in Xinjiang, China, and said it would not cooperate with Xinjiang factories or boycott Xinjiang products (cotton).

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already strongly refuted this. The so-called "forced labor" in Xinjiang is a complete lie. The people of Xinjiang have the best say in how Xinjiang enterprises develop and how their workers live.

accusations made out of nothing and ulterior motives are full of prejudice and expose ignorance.

Then, the "pushing hand" BCI (Swiss Better Cotton Development Association) surfaced. According to the BCI official website, the organization identified China's Xinjiang cotton as a product of "forced labor and human rights violations". A number of international brands such as H&M, Puma, Nike, Uniqlo, etc., are all members of the BCI organization, claiming to cut off ties with Chinese companies on the so-called “forced labor”.

After the incident was exposed, H&M spokesperson Huang Xuan was the first to announce the cessation of cooperation, followed by Song Qian (HM), Wang Yibo Tan Songyun (Nike), Yang Mi Dilireba Yi Qianqian Xi (Adidas), Li Xian Yang Yang Liu Haoran (Puma), Jing Boran Ni Ni Wang Yuan (Uniqlo), William Chan Li Zhenning (T&H), Bai Jingting Ouyang Nana (Converse), Zhang Yixing (Converse and CK) and many other celebrities have also announced the termination of endorsement cooperation with member brands of the BCI organization. Artists such as

Tong Liya, Xiao Zhan, Yu Misty , Hannikzi, Ai Heat, Aifu Jieni, Yu Shuxin, Yu Yan, Lu Keran, Zhao Xiaotang, An Qi and other artists support Xinjiang Cotton through forwarding.

celebrity termination of cooperation is "broken arm to stop bleeding"? Brokerage team: There may also be a positive effect.

For patriotic behaviors like celebrities, netizens have praised them. But for celebrities, if they unilaterally announce the termination of their endorsements, they will have to face a series of legal issues such as breaking the contract and paying high liquidated damages. The spokesperson of the

brand does not stand on the brand's own standpoint, which may mean that the brand is "permanently blocked", which will also have a negative impact on the reputation of future endorsements. While the stars are backing Xinjiang Cotton, they may also lose their star career. Although fans support their idols, they are actually full of worries.

Entertainment interviewed Song, a member of the brokerage operation team of a well-known performing arts company in the industry, but he had a different view on this.

Regarding the situation of various celebrities announced on the 25th of "default" and fans' concerns, Song said that it may not be so bad: "The responsibilities of the artist and the brand for breach of contract are mutual. When the general artist signs a brand endorsement contract, it will increase. Some special factors, such as the need to respect Chinese history and culture, and not interfere with politics, also has various force majeure, the terms of will be very detailed ."

"Like this situation, the artist feels that the brand is irresponsible And if you propose to terminate the cooperation, you can ask the brand to pay the artist’s endorsement period. For the artist team, the loss is reduced to the lowest . "

" As for reputation, for political reasons, artists are public figures. , In the face of the big right and wrong, immediately announced the termination of the problem brand, and stated their own position, not only will not lose reputation, but also increase the positive public perception of the artist. Image, he even said that there is no need: "We will not guide speech, only do what we have to do, and is the right thing."

breach of contract does not necessarily have to lose money to terminate the contract, there are many ways

international brands do not consider China According to national conditions, the incident of "humiliating China" is not an exception.

In 2018, Stefano Gabbana, designer of the well-known high-end luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana, chatted with netizens on ins, saying that "China is a country like shit". The insulting remarks aroused heated discussion. Zhang Ziyi , Chen Kun, Li Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Wang Junkai and subsequently said that they would not attend the DG show held by Dolce & Gabbana in Shanghai, and many Chinese models have also announced a strike. The DG show ended in an unsuccessful way, and Dolce & Gabbana has almost disappeared from the Chinese market ever since.

With lessons learned, many celebrities have indeed kept a "mindful eye" when signing endorsement cooperation with major foreign brands.

is good at dealing with disputes in the entertainment field. Lawyer Liu Yi from Guangdong Junyan (Qianhai) Law Firm explained to us: "Whether the contract can be terminated depends on how the two parties agree on the "dissolution of the contract" in the contract. Yes, does the “removal situation” include improper statements due to the brand’s politically incorrect and illegalOn the situation where the contract can be unilaterally terminated by the conduct, if any, the contract will be terminated immediately, and there will be no breach of contract costs. "

" If there is no such agreement, you can also try statutory termination situations, such as the brand party's breach of contract, or the parties are unable to continue to perform the contract and thus terminate the contract . "

After some artists took the lead in announcing the termination of the cooperation, the endorsement artists of the major brands involved also announced the termination of the cooperation. Lawyer Liu Yi analyzed: "It shows that is likely to be able to legally terminate the contract. There is no great possibility. Risk, fans can rest assured . "If

really embarks on the road of rights protection, Lawyer Liu Yi is also very confident that the artist Fang will win the lawsuit. : "I think that if the artist terminates the contract based on the brand's improper remarks, there will be legitimate and legal reasons, and there is no need to compensate for liquidated damages." , Secondly, even if the brand sue related artists in China, it is not certain whether the court will actually award compensation. "

"H&Ms" will not fall. Rather than resisting, they are not truthful to support domestic products

. Regarding the unreasonable behavior of the BCI organization and major brands, Lawyer Liu Yi supports netizens to speak rationally on the Internet: "A series of brands headed by H&M." Shang's behavior this time involved not only illegal and politically incorrect issues, but also "irrational and rude" standing in line after BCI's boycott of Xinjiang cotton. Therefore, is not tenable at the moral level and the legal level . "

In fact, in contrast to the damage caused to the brand by the celebrity's termination, the brand's "inaction" has also caused a negative impact on the endorsement artist. After the incident, Wang Yibo, Yang Mi, Di Lieba and other celebrity studios Weibo was fiercely bombarded, and netizens scolded them why they didn’t terminate the contract and even labeled them as “unpatriotic”.

However, after the celebrities learned about the situation, they issued a termination statement through the studio, but they were not able to completely calm the part. The anger of netizens was pointed out that the statement was slow and they were waiting for a turnaround. There was a lot of complaints. Lawyer

Liu Yi called on netizens to take a comprehensive look at the problem, because these brands have been cultivated in China for so many years, for Chinese employees in upstream and downstream industries. It will also have a big impact: "The chain reaction of the incident is larger than the last D&G humiliation incident, and it will cause earthquakes in the entire textile industry and its upstream and downstream industries. The choice of each brand of is beyond our control. The size of the Chinese market can be seen by any company. It is hoped that the brands involved can soothe the emotions of domestic consumers.

When everyone was condemning foreign brands collectively, some netizens found that domestic brand Li Ning had always written "Using Xinjiang cotton" on the label of the product. Domestic brands have spoken out in support of Xinjiang cotton, which won unanimous praise from netizens. Li Ning Anta The stock prices of other brands have also risen sharply, and many apparel and textile stocks have their daily limit. Lawyer

Liu Yi also said: “Instead of entangled in how the insulting brand of China will fall quickly, instead of supporting domestic production and strengthening its own brand building, many foreign clothing brands can gradually fade out of our lives. Revitalization is helpful. Compared with foreign clothing, our domestic clothing brands are also high-quality and inexpensive. Why not do it?"

(Editor in charge: Chen Shaojie_b6952)