Unauthorized commercial use of the Olympic symbol BMW was fined

On January 4, BMW (China) Automobile Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as BMW) was fined 50,000 yuan for commercial Olympic symbols.

Screenshot of the website of the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System

According to a penalty information recently released by the website of the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, bmw published 10 text publicity microblogs with the words "#Watching the Olympic Games", "#To the Spirit of Athletes#" on its real-name certified Weibo number "BMW China" from July 23 to August 8, 2021, with posters attached.

Although BMW stated that the copy and poster were designed, produced and published by Meituo Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., and that the hot search term for "#Watching the Olympic Games" was authorized by the company's media procurement agency, Shanghai Leo Bena Co., Ltd., Beijing Branch, after communicating with Sina Weibo, the company's media procurement agency, confirmed by the letter from the Organizing Committee of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the right holder of the Olympic symbol, that the parties had not obtained the authorization to use the Olympic symbol for commercial purposes. The parties concerned did not use this publicity to obtain relevant economic benefits, so it was determined that there was no illegal business turnover.

In this regard, the Beijing Chaoyang District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau ordered BMW to correct the above illegal acts and imposed a fine of 50,000 yuan. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)