Praise or pay: Report finds Tesla sued critical customers, bloggers for negative opinions

Imagine buying a car, not finding certain elements up to your liking, expressing your views, all for the carmaker to sue you for your opinion. Weird, right? But a recent report by Associated Press informs that this is exactly the path Tesla has taken in China where it has sued six Tesla owners who held a negative opinion about their own electric car.

As per the Associated Press report, Tesla took legal action against six of its own customers who had either complained about quality problems or had blamed mechanical faults for accidents they were involved in. Additionally, Tesla also reportedly sued as many as six bloggers and two media outlets in the country for similar reasons.

But wait, it gets even more bizarre.

It has been highlighted that Tesla may either be winning a majority of these cases or has at least secured out-of-court settlements. And on the flipside, of the 81 cases filed in the country by Tesla owners against Tesla, the company has managed to secure wins in dozens.

Tesla is the world's biggest electric vehicle (EV) maker and China is the world's largest vehicle and EV market. The stakes are high and competition tough as China's own BYD has expanded its global footprint to challenge Tesla's might. But while brands across industries have the reputation of suing customers, Tesla is being accused of being a bit too high-handed.

The Associated Press report mentions that a Chinese customer was sued by Tesla after she publicly protested against a Model 3 crash which sent her parents to the hospital. She had protested by sitting on top of her damaged electric sedan, gathered a whole lot of spotlight, was subsequently sued by Tesla and lost the case. Another blogger is referred to as someone who was sued by Tesla after he wrote about suspected brake failures in his Model S.

The counter point here is that there is growing suspicion of a smear campaign against Tesla in China, a market where several local players are tryingt to strike electric gold. While the company enjoys massive fan following in the Asian nation, its American roots may not go down well with absolutely everyone.

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