[4] Compiled from: Red Star News
 
[2] Hujiang Online School has recently encountered several incidents, involving multiple celebrities. From August to December 2021, several cases of infringement liability disputes and portrait rights disputes involving Hujiang Education were heard in court. The plaintiffs in these cases include Ge You, Zhang Yishan, Xiao Yang, Xie Mengwei, and others. In fact, this is not the first time celebrities have taken Hujiang Education to court. As early as 2017, actress Zhou Dongyu sued Hujiang Education and won.

 

 
Case review
[3] On July 25, 2017, Hujiang Education published an article titled "'Spring Breeze Can't Compare to You': Zhou Dongyu and Zhang Yishan Have Great Chemistry, So Sweet!" on its official WeChat public account "Hujiang Online School." The article used 12 portrait images of Zhou Dongyu and contained information such as "The world is so big, want to see the differences outside? Learn a language this summer" and "Top courses, 24-hour flash sale."

 

[4] Zhou Dongyu's side argued that Hujiang Education, without permission, used her portrait for commercial promotion, which constituted unauthorized use of another's portrait for profit, suspected of infringing on her portrait rights. Additionally, the placement of the portrait and related content led to misunderstandings, lowering her social evaluation, and suspected of infringing on her reputation rights.
 
[5] On December 1, 2018, the Beijing Haidian District People's Court ruled that Hujiang Education must, within ten days after the judgment takes effect, continuously publish an apology statement on the involved WeChat public account "Hujiang Online School" for seven days, apologize to plaintiff Zhou Dongyu, and compensate Zhou Dongyu for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 25,200 yuan.

 

 
Article 1019 of the Civil Code
No organization or individual may infringe upon another person's right to portrait by means of vilification, defacement, or forgery using information technology. Without the consent of the portrait right holder, no one may produce, use, or publicly disclose the portrait of the right holder, unless otherwise provided by law. Without the consent of the portrait right holder, the owner of a portrait work may not use or publicly disclose the portrait of the right holder by means of publication, reproduction, distribution, rental, exhibition, or otherwise.

 

 
[1] The author's perspective
As can be seen from the above legal provision, the Civil Code removes the condition of "for profit purposes," but also provides several exceptions for "reasonable use without the consent of the portrait rights holder," such as for personal study, news reporting, safeguarding public interest, or the legitimate rights and interests of the portrait rights holder. In other words, except for these "exceptions," publicly displaying another person's portrait without permission is illegal, regardless of whether it is for commercial use.
 
From this series of cases, it is evident that careless marketing may lead to lawsuits. In fact, educational and training institutions are not only for-profit corporate entities, but the content they publish on social platforms like WeChat public accounts and Weibo is often related to education and training. Therefore, they must not only comply with the above Civil Code provisions but also adhere to Article 24 of the Advertising Law. In summary, when promoting or marketing, if using another person's portrait rights, prior consent must be obtained, and attention should also be paid to any special restrictions in the relevant industry to avoid further disputes.