Can the Amount of High-Reward Induced by a Host Hiding His Marriage Be Recovered? Shenzhen Professional Marriage Lawyer Tang Yunhong Explains the Judgment, Legal Characterization, and

Practical Expert in Marriage and Family Affairs Dispute (Mediation/Litigation)

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Guangdong Dao Hua Law Firm, Dao Hua Marriage and Family Law Team, Tang Yunhong Lawyer, Top Ten Divorce Lawyers in Shenzhen Recommended, Top Ten Inheritance Lawyers Recommended, Professional Divorce Litigation and Heritage Inheritance Litigation Lawyers in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, well-knownMajor property family lawyerA large number of successful cases, particularly skilled in handling: difficult property division/court litigation, listed company equity/fund/share division, real estate, Shenzhen small property rights houses/farmer houses, land, factories, virtual currency assets, property division involving Hong Kong divorce, marital/Divorce property agreements, tax planning, debt isolation, property transfer after divorce, overseas nationality inheritance, will notarization, wills/inheritance disputes litigation, will customization and validity determination, old city renovation demolition, civil and criminal overlap, cross-border collaboration, etc. Service areas: Guangdong, Shenzhen, Futian, Hong Kong, Macau, overseas, Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan.

Abstract:With the popularity of online live streaming, disputes over large amounts of gifts induced by ambiguous inducements between anchors and fans are frequent. Especially when anchors conceal their marital status and induce single fans to make gifts in the name of marriage and love, such disputes are more likely to be associated with the principles of honesty, public order and good customs in the field of marriage and family affairs, as well as the joint right of husband and wife to dispose of property.

This article is written by Tang Yunhong, the chief marriage and family lawyer at Guangdong Daohua Law Firm, who analyzes the legal nature, recovery methods, and practical points of such reward disputes in combination with the case number (2024) Yu 0101 Minchu 15818, to help individuals with similar experiences maintain their legitimate rights and interests.

One, Case Review

Divorced woman lured by married anchor; can the huge tips be recovered?

Plaintiff Lu Qing (a divorced single woman) was added as a friend on Douyin and WeChat by defendant Wang Bin (alive-streamer) after watching his live streams and videos on the Douyin platform in December 2023. As a member of the divorced group, Lu Qing has an even more urgent yearning for a beautiful love, which became the breakthrough for defendant Wang Bin to carry outinducing behaviors.

Wang Bin, while married (registered marriage in 2018, divorced during the lawsuit in October 2024), deliberately concealed his married status, lied to Lu Qing that he was single, and exploited Lu Qing's expectations of marriage and romance. By sending ambiguous texts and videos such as "Thank you to my wife, I love you, kiss," he sought sympathy by claiming "high debt and pressure," continuouslyinducinging Lu Qing to make large donations, and arranging offline meetings with her. From December 20, 2023, to June 3, 2024, Lu Qing made a total of 178 donations amounting to 387,507.4 yuan to the two Douyin accounts operated by Wang Bin ("Xiaoao Jianghu. Life Account" and "Xiaoao Jianghu"), through platform charging of diamonds (1 yuan can buy 10 diamonds) and purchasing virtual gifts. During this period, Lu Qing also transferred 145,000 yuan offline to Wang Bin for car purchase, which Wang Bin has returned. The defendant Wang Bin is the actual user of the aforementioned two Douyin accounts, where the "Xiaoao Jianghu" account was registered in the name of his father and signed a "Host and Union Cooperation Agreement" with the defendant Changsha Xingcheng Chuangxiang Culture Media Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xingcheng Chuangxiang Media Co.), stipulating that after deducting 50% of the technical service fee of the Douyin platform, Wang Bin receives 35%, and Xingcheng Chuangxiang Media Co. receives 15%; the "Xiaoao Jianghu. Life Account" signed a cooperative agreement with another media company, with Wang Bin receiving 35% of the live broadcast income.

In June 2024, Lu Qing discovered that Wang Bin was maintaining ambiguous relationships with multiple women and hiding his married status, realizing that he had been deceived, and then sued the Wanzhou District People's Court of Chongqing, requesting the cancellation of the reward behavior, ordering the two defendants to jointly return the reward amount of 388,137.8 yuan, and for Wang Bin to bear the litigation and preservation fees.

Second, the court's judgment

The court holds that gifts with the purpose of marriage or romance are invalid, and the party at fault shall bear the responsibility for returning the gifts. The judgment is as follows:

1. The defendant Wang Bin shall return the related tip amount to the plaintiff Lu Qing within ten days after the judgment takes effect.

2. Dismiss the other litigation claims of the plaintiff Lu Qing.

(1) Nature of tipping behavior: Not consumption, but a gift with the purpose of marriage and romance.

The court believes that the act of tipping in question is named as live consumption, but in reality, it is a gift act with the purpose of marriage and romance, rather than a simple online service consumption. Tang Yunhong, a lawyer from Guangdong Dao Hua Law Firm, analyzes based on her experience in handling marriage and family cases. The core feature of this case is the binding of marriage and romance expectations with tipping, which is the essential difference between this type of dispute and ordinary live tipping.

The interaction between the two exceeds the relationship between a regular anchor and fans, involving frequent private and intimate chats, mutual calling each other "husband" and "wife," offline meetings, andinduced rechargingtips, etc., which conforms to the initial interaction characteristics of a marital and romantic relationship.

2. The frequency of tipping is high and the amounts are substantial, with a cumulative total of over 380,000 yuan in the past 6 months, which is clearly beyond the needs of daily life and entertainment. Considering Lu Qing's status as a divorced and single individual, it is sufficient to conclude that the tipping was for the purpose of maintaining an intimate relationship with Wang Bin and pursuing a romantic outcome.

3. The core purpose of Lu Qing's tip is to establish a marital and romantic relationship, not to appreciate Wang Bin's talent performance, which conforms to the core characteristics of a gift-giving act, therefore, the defense of the two defendants that the tip is a consumption behavior is rejected.

(2) Validity of gift: Concealing being married violates public order and good customs, the gift is invalid.

The court ruled that the gift contract in question is invalid due to its violation of public order and good customs. Wang Bin deliberately concealed his married status, fabricated the fact that being single allows for establishing romantic and marital relationships, and induced Lu Qing to make substantial rewards. His actions violated the principles of honesty and trustworthiness and public order and good customs. According to Article 153, Paragraph 2 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, civil legal acts that violate public order and good customs are invalid.

Shenzhen marriage and family lawyer Tang Yunhong supplemented: From the perspective of marriage and family, Wang Bin's actions not only violate public order and good customs, but also involve suspected violation of the marital fidelity obligation (his concealment of his married status during the continuation of the marriage relationship), and at the same time, he used the urgent needs of divorced women for marriage and love to induce, with obvious subjective fault. At the same time, the court did not accept Wang Bin's defense that concealing his married status was to win the audience's favor, was not improper, and Lu Qing had intimate relationships with many opposite genders, as Wang Bin did not provide sufficient evidence to support his claims.

(3) Responsible party and return amount: The anchor is responsible, the guild is not at fault and does not bear responsibility.

Responsible party: The lawsuit request of Lu Qing for Xingcheng Chuangxiang Media Company to bear joint and several return liability is rejected. The reason is that Lu Qing has not provided evidence to prove that Wang Bin publicly declared himself single during live broadcasts, nor has he provided evidence to prove that Xingcheng Chuangxiang Media Company knew that Wang Bin deceived fans into making gifts by posing as single and was negligent in management. Therefore, Xingcheng Chuangxiang Media Company has no fault and is not responsible. Lawyer Tang Yunhong reminds that in such cases, the core issue for the company to bear liability is that it knows about the anchor's fraud and still allows it; otherwise, it does not need to bear joint and several liability.

2. Refund base: 50% of the tip amount has been deducted as service fee by the Douyin platform, which part Wang Bin has not actually benefited from. Therefore, only the remaining 50% (387507.4 yuan × 50% = 193753.7 yuan) is included in the refund scope.

Chapter 3: Tang Yunhong's lawyer's experience in handling cases

As a lawyer at Guangdong Dao Hua Law Firm specializing in the field of marriage and family law, Tang Yunhong analyzes the core legal issues of such cases from the perspective of the intersection of marriage and family law and contract disputes, combining the case at hand with similar cases in the Shenzhen area.

1. The nature distinction of live streaming tips.Small rewards given solely for appreciating the talents of anchors and obtaining entertainment experiences are usually regarded as consumer behavior of online services, and once completed, fans have no right to demand a refund; however, in this case, the act of rewarding is directly linked to expectations of marriage and romance. The anchor, by concealing key identity information (married) and fabricating intimate relationships, induces divorced and single fans to make large rewards beyond the normal scope of entertainment. The essence of this reward is a gift with the purpose of marriage and romance. From the perspective of marriage and family affairs, the core purpose of such gifts is to establish a legitimate marriage and romantic relationship. When the purpose cannot be achieved due to the anchor's fraud and the behavior violates public order and good customs, the court will inevitably determine the gift to be invalid.

2. Rules for return after the invalidation of a gift.According to Article 157 of the Civil Code, after a civil legal act is invalidated, the person performing the act shall return the property obtained from the act; if all parties are at fault, the losses shall be shared in proportion to the degree of fault. In this case, the court did not support the full return, primarily considering two points: first, the anchor only actually received 35% of the reward amount (after deducting the platform's 50% and the guild's 15%), and the base for return should deduct the part already collected by the platform (as the anchor did not actually benefit); second, fans as adult rational individuals, especially those in divorced groups, should be more cautious in dealing with marriage and love commitments in online friendships, and if they fail to fulfill their due diligence, they should bear part of the losses.

3. The scope of responsibility of the brokerage company.In this case, Xingcheng Chuangxiang Media Company is not liable, the core being the absence of fault. Based on judicial practice in the Shenzhen area, lawyer Tang Yunhong summarizes: To determine that the agency company is jointly liable, two conditions must be met simultaneously: First, the anchor engages in fraudulent behavior in public live broadcasts (such as publicly claiming to be single, promising marriage and romance); Second, the agency company is aware of such behavior but fails to fulfill its management and suppression obligations. If the agency company is unaware of the anchor's private intimacy and identity concealment and has fulfilled the basic anchor management obligations, it will not bear responsibility.

Tang Yunhong lawyerHaving delved into the Shenzhen marriage and family law field for many years, a special reminder to the single and divorced groups in Shenzhen: be cautious when making online friends, especially when facing ambiguous advances from public figures like anchors. It is imperative to verify the other person's marital status and identity information first to avoid making large-scale rewards or transfers due to emotional impulsiveness. If unfortunately encountering such fraud, resulting in property loss, one should immediately preserve relevant evidence, promptly entrust a professional marriage and family lawyer to intervene, formulate a targeted rights protection plan in conjunction with the judicial practice in Shenzhen, and efficiently recover the losses.

Daohua Family Law Firm (Guangdong Daohua Law Firm), ten years of focus on major property family law services.Divorce inheritance domestic disputesPractical expert in mediation/litigation, it is one of the influential brands of professional legal services in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area [Shenzhen native], and also a renowned mediation and litigation benchmark lawyer team in the field of cross-border divorce and inheritance.

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