Guesthouse where visiting heads of state stay in China sues electronics giant over adverts

The Chinese arm of Dutch electronics giant Philips is being sued by an official government villa in Beijing over alleged false advertising of air purifiers, a court said Tuesday.

The Diaoyutai State Guesthouse regularly receives foreign heads of state and government, more than 1,200 since it opened in 1959, and has accommodated US presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, as well as British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and North Korean founding father Kim Il-sung.

It accused Philips (China) Investment Co of falsely promoting its air purifiers as having been specifically designed for the hotel and having “served leaders of various countries”, the Haidian District People’s Court said in a statement.

The advertisements, carried in newspapers and online, claimed Diaoyutai used the products during the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing, the court said, citing the guesthouse.

But the plaintiff said it “had never purchased or used the air purifiers the defendant promoted”, according to the court statement.

The hotel complained that Philips “used Diaoyutai State Guesthouse’s popularity and reputation without authorisation in its product advertisements, fabricated stories and severely infringed the plaintiff’s legal rights and interests”, it added.

The guesthouse, affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demanded Philips pay 100,000 yuan (HK$125,000) in compensation and apologise at least twice in national media, according to the statement.