Major News: RELX Sues WIK and Factory Moke in Pod Compatibility Dispute

On June 16, it was reported by Blue Hole New Consumption that the leading domestic e-cigarette brand RELX has recently filed a lawsuit in a court in Guangdong against WIK e-cigarettes and its factory, Dongguan Moke, over unfair competition disputes.

The lawsuit involves two defendants: WIK Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. and Dongguan Moke Technology Co., Ltd.

As is well known, pods are one of the important profit points for every brand in the e-cigarette industry. Therefore, being responsible for the e-cigarettes and specific models of pods developed by oneself is a safety responsibility, business ethics, and social responsibility that every company should uphold.

In the lawsuit, RELX stated that WIK unauthorizedly authorized Moke to mass-produce and sell, promote pods that are compatible with RELX e-cigarettes and specific models, referred to as universal pods. WIK's products used phrases like "RELX universal pods" and "RELX and WIK pods are interchangeable" in their sales and promotions to attract consumers by leveraging RELX's brand recognition, thus obtaining improper benefits.

In response, RELX believes that the logos of RELX and WIK are highly similar and used in the e-cigarette field, which can easily mislead consumers into mistakenly thinking that WIK's products are from the RELX brand, or even that there is a specific connection between the two.

RELX argues that WIK's actions are essentially a form of "counterfeiting," which clearly indicates an intention to attach itself to another brand's reputation and seize the fruits of others' labor. The related unfair competition behavior has caused losses to RELX, and WIK should bear compensation responsibilities.

The lawsuit also indicates that RELX believes the aforementioned unfair competition behavior will inevitably lead to a diversion of RELX e-cigarette users, with some products facing the risk of substantial substitution. At the same time, WIK's actions of leveraging RELX's brand recognition and reputation to gain more trading opportunities violate the principles of honesty and commercial ethics, which will not only cause RELX to lose more trading opportunities and suffer commercial losses but also objectively undermine the innovation incentive mechanism in the e-cigarette market and disrupt the normal market competition order.

Based on this, RELX claims that WIK and Moke's actions constitute unfair competition under the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and they should bear legal responsibilities such as stopping the infringement, compensating for losses, and eliminating the impact.

According to information from the Chinese trial process information public website, the case was accepted by the court on June 2 and was transferred to the trial court on June 3.

As the relevant evidence in this case has not been made public, the outside world currently has no way of knowing more detailed information about the case.