TapTechNews July 17th news, after the first-instance judgment of the iQiyi restricting screen projection case, the court's ruling has sparked heated discussions.
According to Modern Express, on the last day of the appeal period, the plaintiff filed an appeal, demanding that non-renewing single-member and consecutive monthly members enjoy the same treatment. Defendant iQiyi also filed an appeal, believing that there is no obligation to provide gold members with screen projection services with a resolution higher than 480P permanently and for free, and that the original judgment has errors in fact-finding and legal application.
TapTechNews previously reported that in February 2023, Zhu Yuan, a seven-year old fan of iQiyi, took iQiyi to court due to the screen projection restrictions. The reason is that in January 2023, he found that iQiyi restricted the screen projection resolution of gold VIP members to 480P, and one needs to upgrade the membership to enjoy a higher resolution. Zhu Yuan believes that this change has violated his membership rights and interests, especially when he has recharged the gold VIP membership for more than five consecutive years. After ineffective communication with iQiyi customer service, Zhu Yuan believes that iQiyi's act of unilaterally changing the contract terms has constituted a breach of contract and should bear the liability for breach of contract, so Zhu Yuan took iQiyi to court.
After more than a year of trial, the result of the first-instance judgment of the case was released earlier this month. The court determined that the plaintiff enjoys the high-definition screen projection rights and interests of 720P and 1080P before July 15, 2025, and the iQiyi platform compensates the plaintiff for the VIP duration of 41 days of gold membership.
On July 13th, the plaintiff Zhu Yuan officially filed an appeal with the purpose of striving for the same treatment of non-renewing single-member and consecutive monthly members. Zhu Yuan said that he agrees with the result of confirming that old members enjoy high-definition screen projection rights and interests within the original period and compensating for the 41-day membership period in the first-instance judgment.
Zhu Yuan believes that this case is caused by the unclear and opaque rights and interests boundaries under the circumstance of membership classification between users and the platform, and the platform's unilateral change. The deep reason is due to the inconsistent underlying logic of the current membership classification and charging.
On July 17th, iQiyi has also filed an appeal against the first-instance judgment. iQiyi stated in the appeal that the VIP membership service agreement does not stipulate that there is an obligation to provide gold members with screen projection services with a resolution higher than 480P permanently and for free. The fact that iQiyi once provided it to users for free cannot be concluded that iQiyi has an obligation to provide it permanently and for free.
iQiyi also believes that the original judgment's compensation of the appellant with 41 days of iQiyi App gold VIP membership duration does not mean and is actually far less than the scope of gold membership rights and interests. The original judgment's determination of taking compensating with the same number of days of gold membership duration as the liability method for restricting the screen projection resolution has no factual and legal basis, and is contrary to the principle of filling damages in civil cases, causing great injustice to iQiyi and seriously damaging the legitimate rights and interests of iQiyi.
In conclusion, iQiyi believes that providing screen projection services with a resolution higher than 480P to gold members does not belong to the content of the VIP membership service agreement, and the sued behavior does not constitute a breach of contract, and the original judgment has errors in fact-finding and legal application.