Recently, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) received a notice from the Supreme People's Court that its application for retrial of the public interest litigation against Shenzhen Sumei Company and Taobao for illegally selling the so-called "annual inspection artifact" was accepted.
On October 26, 2016, the CBCGDF filed a lawsuit against Zhejiang Taobao Network Co., Ltd. (Taobao.com) and Shenzhen Sumei Environmental Protection Co., Ltd. regarding the illegal sales and production of "artifacts" used for annual vehicle inspections to the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court, officially filed a civil environmental public interest lawsuit (EPIL); On November 10, 2016, CBCGDF received a notice of case acceptance from the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court, and officially accepted the case of CBCGDF's environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) against Shenzhen Sumei Environmental Protection Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Taobao Network Co., Ltd. (Taobao.com). Among them, the plaintiff China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) requested the court to order Sumei Environmental Protection Co., Ltd., which produces and sells the product, and Taobao, which provides an online sales platform, to apologize in the national media, to bear more than 150 million yuan in restoration costs of the ecological environment in a joint and several manner, and requires Sumei Environmental Protection Co., Ltd. to stop production and sales of the product.
The first and second-instance judgments of this case confirmed the responsibility for pollution damage and compensation obligations of the defendant Shenzhen Sumei Company. However, for the defendant Taobao, the court only reminded it to bear social responsibility, and did not decide to bear joint liability.
Does Taobao have to bear joint and several liability in this case? In an interview with the reporter, Ma Yong, the Deputy Secretary-General of CBCGDF stated that, in fact, Taobao, as a trading platform in this case, did not perform basic review, inspection and monitoring at all, and long-term connivance and acquiescence to the behavior of platform merchants Shenzhen Sumei Company in selling illegal products, and provided effective platform promotion methods to help, and should bear joint responsibility for this case.
"E-commerce platforms should not only actively fulfill their social responsibilities and help the country in tackling pollution, but also take the necessary legal responsibilities. On their platforms, they should completely prohibit the listing and sale of illegal products to protect the public interest of society." Ma Yong Said.
On January 22 this year, CBCGDF submitted application materials for retrial to the Supreme People’s Court. It filed an application for retrial in the public interest litigation against Shenzhen Sumei Company and Taobao for illegally selling the so-called "annual inspection artifact" and requested the Supreme People’s Court to retrial to order Taobao to bear joint and several liability in this case.
Case review:
On October 26, 2016, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) submitted the litigation materials for suing Zhejiang Taobao Network Co., Ltd. (Taobao), Shenzhen Sumei Environmental Protection Co., Ltd. illegal sales the products of the artifacts of the annual inspection of automobiles, formally filed in a civil environmental public interest litigation (EPIL), and the relevant materials were accepted by the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court.
On October 29, 2016, CBCGDF submitted an application for evidence preservation to the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou City in response to the case of the sale of artifacts on the Hangzhou Taobao website.
On November 10, 2016, CBCGDF received a notice of case acceptance from the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, and formally accepted the environmental public interest litigation of Shenzhen Sumei Environmental Protection Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Taobao Network Co., Ltd. (Taobao.com) sued by CBCGDF.
On December 19, 2016, CBCGDF received a civil ruling from the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court.
On December 22, 2016, the CBCGDF received that the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court rejected one of the defendants in the EPIL case against Taobao, the civil ruling on the objection to jurisdiction proposed by Shenzhen Sumei Environmental Protection Co., Ltd.
On June 19, 2017, the environmental public interest litigation against Shenzhen Sumei Company and Taobao for illegally selling the so-called "annual inspection artifact", which was sued by CBCGDF, was organized by the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court to exchange evidence before court between the plaintiff and the defendant.
On September 7, 2018, the case was heard in Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court.
On June 5, 2019, CBCGDF received a civil judgment from the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court.
On June 13, 2019, CBCGDF submitted a petition to the Zhejiang Higher People's Court.
On August 23, 2019, the second instance of the case was heard in Zhejiang Higher People's Court.
On October 17, 2019, CBCGDF received a civil judgment from Zhejiang Higher People's Court.
On January 17, 2020, CBCGDF submitted an application for retrial to the Supreme People's Court.
On August 7, 2020, the CBCGDF received the Supreme People's Court's notice of acceptance of the retrial.
(Photo credit: CBCGDF)
Reference links:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/H6S8cklByRGXIWUieT0AHw
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4857/13468.html
http://www.cbcgdf.org/English/NewsShow/5001/12002.html
By / Niu Jingmei, Yao Jiahui (Intern)
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