Nio Inc.‘s legal department said on Friday that multiple suspects have been placed under criminal compulsory measures after fabricating false promotional offers for the company’s brands on the social media platform Xiaohongshu.
The Shanghai-based EV maker also disclosed favorable court judgments in four separate defamation cases — including an appellate ruling that increased damages against a repeat offender.
Nio‘s statement marks the latest escalation in the EV maker’s long-running legal campaign against online misinformation.
In May, the company reported it was facing a coordinated smear campaign targeting the company, its Onvo sub-brand, and people featured in its promotional materials.
A month earlier, Nio disclosed that police had arrested a suspect who used AI-powered tools to spread fabricated content through more than 4,000 social media accounts.
Rival XPeng announced two first-instance defamation victories of its own earlier this week — part of what has become an increasingly visible trend across China’s automotive industry as manufacturers publicly pursue legal action against online rumor campaigns.
Fake Promotional Offers
According to the statement, certain online accounts had “for an extended period posted false promotional information about Nio‘s brands on the Xiaohongshu platform.”
The scheme involved fabricating promotional offers and misleading consumers into submitting their personal information.
Nio described the activity as illegal collection of personal data, saying the accounts generated fake leads by posing as authorized sellers.
The company stated that “in response to these serious violations of consumers’ rights and interests, Nio has officially reported the matter to the public security authorities.”
“The police have now launched an investigation, and multiple suspects have been subject to criminal compulsory measures or administrative penalties, depending on the severity of their conduct,” it read.
Nio used the disclosure to reiterate that it operates under a direct-sales model and has not authorized any third party to sell its vehicles.
“Please do not rely on vehicle purchase offers from unofficial channels, and take care to protect your personal information and avoid financial losses,” the statement added.
Under Chinese criminal procedure, criminal compulsory measures refer to a set of coercive actions that public security organs, prosecutors, or courts may impose on criminal suspects or defendants to prevent them from fleeing, destroying evidence, or continuing criminal activity.
The measures range from summons for questioning and residential surveillance to formal detention and arrest, depending on the severity of the offense and the level of suspicion.
‘BelieveDB’ Case
The statement also provided updates on four civil defamation cases, led by an appellate ruling against the operator of the online account ‘BelieveDB.’
Nio had previously flagged Dong Bin — the account holder behind ‘BelieveDB’ — as having “continuously and intensively” posted false content about the company since 2023.
A first-instance court had already ordered him to issue a public apology and compensate the EV maker.
The legal department said a final second-instance judgment has now been issued.
According to the statement, the court found that “since 2023, Dong Bin had repeatedly published infringing statements targeting Nio, its products, and its executives across online platforms.”
Critically, “even after the first-instance judgment, he continued posting infringing content, further expanding its negative impact.”
As a result, the appellate court extended the period during which Dong Bin must publish a public apology and increased the amount of civil damages.
Three Additional Rulings
The statement detailed three other defamation cases where Nio secured favorable first-instance judgments.
In the case involving the online account ‘Deng Shu You Che Jiang,’ the court found that account holder Zhang Chong had “repeatedly fabricated false claims, used insulting language to deliberately disparage the Nio brand, and distorted the company’s actual business conditions” in an effort to attract online traffic.
The court ruled that Zhang Chong had infringed upon Nio‘s reputation and ordered him to immediately cease the infringing conduct, issue a public apology, and compensate the company for its losses.
According to Nio, Zhang Chong has now fully complied with the effective judgment, including payment of damages and publication of the apology.
A separate ruling against the operator of the account ‘Da D You Taidu’ — identified as Yu Zhibin — found that he had “maliciously fabricated false information relating to Nio and published defamatory statements attacking the company online.”
The first-instance court ordered him to immediately cease the infringement, publicly apologize, and compensate Nio for its losses.
The fourth case targeted a corporate defendant.
Guangzhou Jing Plus Network Technology Co., Ltd., operator of the account ‘Jinjiao Caijing,’ had “published multiple false reports that were inconsistent with Nio‘s actual operating data and financial condition,” according to the statement.
The court found the conduct constituted infringement and issued the same three-part order: cease the infringing acts, publicly apologize, and compensate Nio.
Industry-Wide Legal Push
The new statement follows a pattern of increasingly public legal disclosures by Chinese automakers targeting online disinformation.
Earlier this week, XPeng‘s legal department announced two first-instance defamation victories of its own against automotive content creators in the Guangzhou Internet Court.
The rulings ordered bloggers Liu Hongbin and Zhang Liang to publish public apologies and compensate XPeng for its losses after they published content the court found contained unsupported factual allegations and insulting language.
The Guangzhou court’s reasoning distinguished between protected opinion and unlawful defamation, noting that while opinions are subjective and do not require the same standard of truth as factual statements, they “must remain within the bounds of reasonable comment and may not insult or disparage others.”
The judgment also held that professional automotive content creators face a higher standard of verification than ordinary platform users.
Nio‘s own legal offensive has broadened significantly since the company established its dedicated legal department Weibo account in May 2023.
The company has since sued seven bloggers fabricating attacks on its core and Onvo brands, sued five more accounts and won defamation lawsuits against two bloggers in 2025.
Last month, Nio also sued companies selling counterfeit versions of its ‘Nomi’ in-vehicle voice assistant.
Multiple Chinese automakers — including Nio, XPeng, BYD, and Li Auto — now maintain dedicated legal social media accounts to publicly disclose court rulings.
Several have offered bounties of up to 5 million yuan ($736,500) for evidence identifying those behind coordinated disinformation campaigns.
The enforcement campaigns operate alongside a government-led crackdown launched in September 2025 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other agencies, targeting illegal profit-seeking, exaggerated advertising, and malicious defamation targeting automakers.
Delivery Context
The statement arrives days after Nio closed the second quarter at 107,658 vehicles delivered across its three brands — Nio, Onvo, and Firefly — falling 2,342 units below the 110,000 floor of the guidance range CEO William Li set out in March.
First-half deliveries reached a record 191,123, up 67.4% year over year.
The legal department closed its statement by reaffirming the company’s positioning.
“Nio remains committed to its identity as a user-centric company and will continue to firmly protect both its brand reputation and the lawful rights and interests of its users, striving to provide an experience that exceeds expectations throughout the ownership journey,” the statement read.
The department also invited the public “to visit our retail stores and experience test drives of the full lineup of Nio, Onvo, and Firefly vehicles.”
