"Platform + individual" has become a new type of cooperation model between MCN companies and Internet celebrities and anchors under the digital economy, and the brokerage contracts signed by platforms and individuals have strong personal attributes, and factors such as imperfect industry systems and non-standard contracts have led to frequent disputes over terms related to personal dependence. Common disputes mainly involve issues such as whether compulsory performance can be enforced, account ownership after the contract is terminated, and whether the brokerage contract can stipulate non-compete clauses, and the lack of adjudication standards leads to inconsistent judgments. Introduce a "hierarchical contracting" system and formulate industry standards for signing brokerage contracts. Under this framework, combined with factors such as the performance of the contract, whether the trust foundation has been lost, and whether there is a possibility of performance, and with reference to personal dependence, comprehensively judge whether the brokerage contract can continue to be performed, prudently determine the contract deadlock, and refine the issues related to account ownership according to different levels, and apply non-compete clauses to the part of the brokerage contract with the characteristics of a labor contract, so as to maintain a good ecology in the industry.
In the context of the digital economy, a large number of short videos and online live broadcasts on Internet platforms are flooding our lives, with diverse types and a wide range of audiences. Under the concept of "traffic is king", no matter what the difference in form of these contents is, their output is aimed at gathering a huge traffic pool to bring about profit increments, and platforms, institutions, and Internet celebrities are doing their best to quickly gather traffic. At present, the Internet platform entertainment industry has formed a relatively complete industrial chain, and even formed an emerging Internet celebrity economy. This industrial chain is mainly composed of four parties, namely MCN institutions, short video and live broadcast platforms, Internet celebrities, anchors, and audiences. In this industrial chain, MCN institutions are in an important position to undertake short video and live broadcast platforms, Internet celebrities, and anchors. Based on the particularity of the performing arts industry, the brokerage contracts signed between MCN institutions and Internet celebrities and anchors will involve a large number of personal dependency issues, and disputes will arise in practice. In this regard, this paper analyzes whether the scope of application of compulsory performance can be expanded in brokerage contracts, the ownership of accounts and output content after the termination of the contract, and the legal application of non-compete clauses in brokerage contracts, so as to solve the problems arising from personal dependence in brokerage contracts and provide solutions for judicial practice.
I. Statistical data on judgment documents
(1) Sample documents for brokerage contract disputes
As of August 26, 2023, a total of 1,705 judgments were retrieved on the Peking University magic treasure platform with the keywords "brokerage contract + anchor or brokerage contract + Internet celebrity or brokerage contract + artist" and "judgment" and "civil first instance + civil second instance". Due to the large number of brokerage contract cases and the fact that some of the cases are very similar, 258 judgments were selected in proportion to the year of completion (hereinafter referred to as the "sample judgments") after the removal of judgments with low relevance.
Since 2018, the disputes between Internet celebrities, anchors and MCN institutions have gradually increased, and the disputes between offline artists and traditional brokerage companies have gradually decreased. In 77% of these judgments, MCN institutions are the plaintiffs, and Internet celebrities and anchors are the defendants. The proportion of MCN institutions as plaintiffs is so high, mainly because contract disputes caused by the breach of contract by Internet celebrities and anchors are very common, one is that Internet celebrities and anchors violate the contract to carry out activities on other platforms other than those stipulated by MCN institutions, and second, Internet celebrities and anchors violate the contract and do not work, and work for less than the agreed time.
(2) The proportion of continued performance and termination of the contract
First, the judgments involving "disputes over whether to continue to perform the contract" are sorted out, and the data shown in Figure 1 is obtained. Among them, 24 per cent of the cases in which the two parties agreed to terminate the contract before or during the litigation or in accordance with the unilateral right of rescission agreed in the contract, 62 per cent of the cases in which the contract was terminated due to breach of contract or the court found that the purpose of the contract could not be achieved, 3 per cent of the cases in which the parties wished to revoke or invalidate the contract on the grounds of obvious unfairness, and the court finally ruled that the contract should continue to be performed, accounting for only 11 per cent. Only 25 per cent of the judgments for continued performance were upheld by the courts, and 75 per cent were terminated.
Figure 1
(3) The outcome of the judgment on account ownership
The platform account of the Internet celebrity anchor has a certain commercial value and is a type of online virtual property. In the management and operation of the online celebrity anchor account, both the MCN company and the online celebrity anchor himself have paid a lot of cost and time, so after the brokerage contract is terminated, the two parties often have a dispute over the ownership of the online celebrity anchor's account. However, in the judgments retrieved by the author, the courts all awarded the account to the Internet celebrity anchor without exception.
(4) Application of non-compete clauses
At present, there are several ways for the court to adjudicate on the non-compete proposed by MCN companies: some judgments support the on-the-job non-compete request for a brokerage contract that can continue to be performed, such as the contract dispute case of Ding and a Beijing Culture Media Co., Ltd., on the premise that the contract involved in the case is still valid, the defendant artist should continue to perform the live broadcast platform restriction clause agreed in the contract; In the case of a contract dispute involving Mr. Jin, although the contract involved in the case continued to be performed, the contract neither stipulated the non-compete period nor provided the anchor with economic compensation on a monthly basis for the post-departure non-compete clause signed by the two parties, so it was ruled that the MCN company had no legal effect on the non-compete restriction after the anchor left the company; In the case of Zhou's contract dispute, the court held that the non-compete obligation to restrict the anchor's activities on other platforms after leaving the company had a personal nature, and if the compulsory performance might constitute a restriction on the personal freedom of the anchor, it was not supported, but it was considered when determining the amount of liquidated damages.
2. Analysis of the dilemma of the personal attribute clause of the brokerage contract
The main operation model of MCN institutions is to find potential Internet celebrities and anchors for training and packaging, improve the quality of videos and live broadcasts to obtain more traffic, and finally realize commercial monetization through advertising, live streaming and other forms. In this model, MCN institutions generally do not establish labor relations with their Internet celebrities and anchors, but prefer cooperative relations, and this cooperation is based on the talents of specific anchors, etc., with strong personal dependence. As early as 2013, in the case of a Shanghai film production company v. Lin, a dispute over an entrustment contract, the judge explained that the brokerage contract is a hybrid contract with the characteristics of an entrustment contract, a labor contract, a discipline contract and an intermediary contract. However, this model leads to a certain degree of instability in the relationship between the two parties. On the one hand, those small Internet celebrities and small anchors who do not have many fans and traffic or who have just entered the industry are easily squeezed by MCN institutions and sign some unequal terms; on the other hand, MCN institutions have weak control over their Internet celebrities and anchors, especially small-scale MCN institutions with only one or a few head anchors, which have a weak voice due to their operation relying too much on specific anchors. The main reason for this situation is that various types of live broadcasts rely on the personal skills of the anchor, for example, the e-sports live broadcast relies on the anchor's game ability and unique commentary, and the appearance anchor also depends on the appearance of the specific anchor, so the stickiness between the audience and the specific anchor is extremely strong and irreplaceable. In this industry, Internet celebrities and anchors are not employees of the company, but are more similar to the products of companies participating in competition in traditional industries. It can be said that Internet celebrities and anchors are not only "employees" who sign contracts with MCN institutions, but also "commodities" created by the company.
(1) It is difficult to continue to perform the contract
Through further analysis of the sample judgments, in practice, if the MCN institution is the defaulting party and there is a breach of contract such as not providing the other party with a job opportunity or arrears of remuneration, and the influencer anchor does not have any breach of contract, the influencer anchor, as a non-breaching party, will generally not require continued performance of the contract, and the court will also rule on the termination of the contract based on the claim of the influencer to terminate the contract. However, more often than not, the MCN company as the non-breaching party wants to continue to perform the contract, and the Internet celebrity anchor wants to terminate the contract as the breaching party, in this case, the non-breaching party has the right to choose between terminating the contract and claiming damages or requiring the breaching party to continue to perform, and the two parties can easily cause a contract deadlock due to the inability to reach a consensus. In the case of a deadlock in the contract, most of the Internet celebrity anchors request to terminate the contract on the following grounds: first, they claim that the foundation of trust between the two parties has been lost and the fundamental purpose of the contract cannot be achieved because of the provisions of Article 563 of the Civil Code, and second, they claim that the brokerage contract has strong personal dependence and is not suitable for compulsory performance due to the provisions of Article 580, Paragraph 2 of the Civil Code. In most judgments, the court will rule that the parties can terminate the contract on the basis of the above two reasons, which is one of the reasons for the disparity in the proportion of judgments for continued performance and termination of the contract. However, the factors to be considered in these two situations are subjective and should not be applied consistently, and in different circumstances, the court may expand the scope of continued performance of the judgment.
(2) It is difficult to determine the ownership of the account
In practice, there are generally two types of demands for account ownership: one is to request cancellation of the account, and the other is to request confirmation of account ownership. Normally, the account of the Internet celebrity anchor on the live broadcast platform is registered with his own identity information, which has strong personal exclusivity. Taking the Kuaishou platform as an example, according to the relevant regulations of the platform, the account registered by the user on the platform is owned by the platform, and the user only has the right to use it, and the account cancellation can only be done through the user's active application or cancellation by the platform due to violations of the regulations, so the MCN company, as a third party, has no right to require the Internet celebrity anchor or the platform to cancel the disputed account. For example, in the case of a contract dispute between Liao and a Foshan Culture Media Co., Ltd., the court rejected the MCN company's claim to cancel the account on this ground. In account ownership disputes, even if the brokerage contract stipulates that the account belongs to the MCN company, in litigation, the account attribution judgment will generally be attributed to the Internet celebrity anchor himself because of the personal dependence of the account and the relevance between the Internet celebrity anchor and the account, such as the contract dispute case between Hu and a cultural media limited liability company in Xinjiang, and the contract dispute case between a cultural communication company in Guangzhou and Chen.
However, a large amount of content produced in the account is integrated with the efforts of both parties, and both parties are unwilling to give up the traffic attracted by the account and the income generated by it, although it is understandable to judge the account to the Internet celebrity anchor based on personal attributes, but to a certain extent, it has damaged the interests of the MCN company, and its cultivation and maintenance of the account have been in vain for a long time, so the problem of whether the account can be attributed to the company and the problem of damage compensation needs to be solved urgently.
(3) It is difficult to apply non-compete clauses
There are generally two kinds of non-compete clauses in brokerage contracts: one is a non-compete clause during employment, the main purpose of which is to ensure that the online celebrity anchor does not have business dealings with other companies in the same industry during the contract period, and does not broadcast live on a platform not designated by the company; Can't live stream on other platforms or can't engage in the industry for a certain period of time. As mentioned above, a brokerage contract is a hybrid contract rather than an employment contract, but the non-compete clause in the mainland is mainly used to regulate labor relations in the labor contract law, which leads to contradictions in the application of the law. Fundamentally speaking, the main purpose of a non-compete clause is to prevent unfair competition and maintain the competitive advantage of an enterprise, which is consistent with the purpose of setting a non-compete clause in a brokerage contract.
3. Institutional innovation path: hierarchical contracting
The assets of the entertainment industry mainly include scale, capital, technology, talents, etc., among which, "people" is the key core element of the film and television entertainment law, and without the initiation and participation of people, everything in the film and television entertainment law cannot be talked about. The profitability of the online entertainment industry largely depends on the traffic brought by the online celebrity anchor and the ability to realize the traffic, and the characteristics of the industry determine that the brokerage contract has certain personal attributes, so many judgments will be terminated on the basis that the nature of the contract is not suitable for compulsory performance. In the Internet era, a large number of anchors and Internet celebrities are incubated every day, and these Internet celebrity anchors are not necessarily mature entertainers who are influential and can generate commercial value when the brokerage contract is signed. MCN companies spend a lot of money on training and packaging, and the improvement of the popularity and commercial value of Internet celebrity anchors is inseparable from the early investment of MCN companies. For example, in the contract dispute case between Jiang and a film and television company in Tianjin, the brokerage company used its own production, The advantages of the dual business of brokerage provide artists with better opportunities for performing arts, coupled with the artist's personal efforts and talents, the performing arts career has risen rapidly, and the company said that it will continue to provide performing arts brokerage services for artists, in this case, the contract between the two parties can continue to be performed, if the contract is terminated blindly because of personal dependence, it will put the brokerage company in an unequal contractual position, and it also violates the principle of fairness and good faith, and is not conducive to the healthy development of the performing arts industry.
Many brokerage contract disputes arise because the status of both parties is relatively equal when the brokerage contract is signed, but with the development of the Internet celebrity anchor and the MCN company, the two are likely to have mismatched resources and unsynchronized development, resulting in the failure of mediation of many terms originally agreed. In addition, because of the personal dependence of the brokerage contract, it is difficult for the court to make a unified judgment in accordance with the existing laws and regulations in the process of discretionary judgment, and often tends to focus on the interests of the Internet celebrity anchor, resulting in certain losses to the interests of the MCN company.
Therefore, the most important measure to prevent the risk of brokerage contracts is to ensure that the contract between the two parties can be relatively fair at different stages, and to refine the provisions related to personal dependence that frequently arise in disputes. Based on this, the brokerage contract should first be "graded signing" and a graded signing system should be formulated. That is, in the process of signing the brokerage contract, the company should cooperate with the contracted object to conduct a background investigation, according to the popularity of the Internet celebrity anchor at the time of signing, The number of fans, etc., divide the level of the Internet celebrity anchor, and agree on the rights and obligations of different levels at different levels, and rate the development situation after the signing, and agree that when the development situation reaches the next level, the original contract between the two parties will be terminated and the next contract consistent with the level can be signed by agreement, so that with the dynamic development of the rights and obligations of both parties to the contract are flexibly adjusted, more equal, and both parties can choose whether to renew the contract at different stages of development, on the one hand, it can reduce disputes, on the other hand, it can also promote the two parties to the contract to conclude the next contract in the performance process, pay more attention to relationship maintenance, and reduce the occurrence of strong and weak situations。
However, in the process of implementing the hierarchical contract system, it is necessary to consider the formulation of grading standards. Under normal circumstances, the determination of the popularity and traffic of Internet celebrity anchors is mainly combined with the following factors: the number of fans on the platform, the number of video views, the number of live broadcast viewers, minute traffic, the amount of tips, sales, etc., and a large number of redundant data that need to be referred to in order to achieve the grading of the brokerage contract. In this regard, the relevant departments should use big data statistics to establish industry standards as soon as possible and standardize brokerage contracts. At present, the mainland has promulgated the Code of Conduct for Online Anchors and the guiding opinions to regulate the new online industry, especially the guiding opinions, which point out that "trade union organizations at all levels should actively recruit workers in new employment forms to join trade unions, actively negotiate with industry associations, leading enterprises or enterprise representative organizations, sign industry collective contracts or agreements, and promote the formulation of industry labor standards." Therefore, the formulation of industry standards needs to be implemented urgently, which is of great significance for standardizing the signing and work of the Internet celebrity anchor industry. The so-called artist trade unions have long existed in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and other countries and have a relatively mature artist brokerage supervision mechanism, aiming to speak for the artist group to protect their legal interests.
IV. Dispute resolution related to personal dependency under the hierarchical contract system
Under the large-scale model of hierarchical contracting, the problems of whether the scope of application of compulsory performance can be expanded in the brokerage contract discovered above, the ownership of the account and output content after the termination of the contract, and the legal application of non-compete clauses in the brokerage contract can be further solved.
(1) Personal dependency is used as a reference item for terminating the contract rather than a decision item
1. Judgment that the foundation of trust is lost and the fundamental purpose of the contract cannot be achieved
Whether there is still a relationship of trust between the two parties is debatable, and it cannot be determined that there is no relationship of trust between the two parties simply because the two parties have gone to court or one party has breached the contract, and the fundamental purpose of the contract cannot be achieved. For example, in the appeal case of other contract disputes between a Shanghai Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. and Sun, the brokerage company completed the basic obligations of the contract and did not commit a serious breach of contract, the artist was only dissatisfied with the agent arranged by the company, and there was no substantive contradiction with the company itself, and the company had hired a new agent for the artist in the course of the second-instance litigation, which showed that the two parties had room to continue to perform the contract. Or in the appeal case of a contract dispute between Jin and a film and television company in Tianjin, the two parties still cooperated one after another after the litigation, and the relevant work arrangements were carried out normally, which also showed that the trust relationship between the two parties still existed, and there was a possibility of realizing the fundamental purpose of the contract. Therefore, whether there is a relationship of trust between the two parties should be comprehensively judged based on the actual circumstances of the case, such as the cause of the dispute between the two parties, whether the dispute affects the follow-up cooperation, and the current cooperation between the two parties, etc., and the dispute cannot be equated with the loss of the foundation of trust. Second, the loss of trust basis is not a statutory condition for terminating the contract, and ultimately it must be determined whether the purpose of the contract can be achieved, and if the degree of loss of trust between the parties does not affect the realization of the purpose of the contract, the termination of the contract should not be ruled on the grounds of loss of trust basis.
2. Judgment on the breaching party's right to terminate
In terms of the application of law, according to Article 580 of the Civil Code, to grant the breaching party the right of rescission, it is necessary to meet both the requirements of "the subject matter of the debt is not suitable for compulsory performance" as mentioned in paragraph 1 and "failure to achieve the purpose of the contract" as mentioned in paragraph 2 Combined with the elaboration of Article 48 of the minutes on the termination of the contract under the deadlock of the contract, four conditions need to be met: (1) it is difficult to continue to perform the contract, (2) the breaching party does not have a malicious breach of contract, (3) the breaching party continues to perform the contract, which is obviously unfair to it, and (4) the non-breaching party refuses to terminate the contract, which violates the principle of good faith. Most of the above-mentioned conditions are not fully met when the contract is terminated when the brokerage contract is terminated. First, it is necessary to determine whether it is truly difficult to continue to perform the contract. In some online anchor cases, the anchor breached the contract because he did not broadcast live on time or did not broadcast for the specified time, in which case the two parties actually have room for negotiation, not irreconcilable. Second, whether the defaulting party is not in bad faith. This article assesses whether the breacher's behavior is malicious, strictly restricts the determination of contract deadlock, and prevents the breaching party from generating moral hazard speculation. Some Internet celebrity anchors breach the contract based on their desire to terminate the contract and leave the current MCN company, and their breach of contract is not all caused by objective factors, and there is a subjective malicious breach of contract, of course, there are some Internet celebrity anchors who are in breach of contract due to physical reasons, etc., if they can no longer continue to engage in live broadcast work due to illness, it does not belong to the category of malicious breach of contract. Third, it remains to be considered whether it is unfair to the defaulting party to continue to perform. It is true that the breaching party is in a disadvantageous legal position in the contract deadlock, and continued performance will inevitably lead to unfairness to the breaching party and deviate from the principle of fairness of the contractual relationship due to the excessive increase in the cost of performance. In some cases, the rights and obligations of both parties are indeed obviously unbalanced, but such cases should be revoked as obviously unfair, and for cases that have reached a contract deadlock, the Internet celebrity anchor party has often performed the contract for a period of time, for example, in the case of the Internet celebrity anchor wanting to terminate the contract after becoming popular, continuing to perform will not excessively increase the performance cost of the Internet celebrity anchor, and the termination of the contract is unfair to the MCN company. Fourth, whether the non-breaching party's refusal to terminate the contract violates the principle of good faith. As mentioned above, what is being discussed at the moment is the situation where the MCN company has not breached the contract and the Internet celebrity anchor has breached the contract, and there is no doubt that the contract will be terminated if the brokerage company breaches the contract, so there is no violation of the principle of good faith by the brokerage company as the non-breaching party under the current circumstances. Fifth, whether the purpose of the contract cannot be achieved. The major legal systems generally emphasize that the failure to achieve the purpose of the contract is the fundamental premise for the termination of the contract, in other words, the contract should not be terminated if the obstacle to performance does not reach a certain level. To sum up, in most brokerage contracts, the conditions for terminating the contract due to contract deadlock are not met, and the court should comprehensively consider the performance of the contract, take personal dependence as a reference item rather than a decision item, and prudently decide to terminate the contract, so as to maintain the principle of good faith and the good ecology of the industry.
From the perspective of legislative purpose, the purpose of stipulating compulsory performance is to protect the interests of trust, and the exclusion of circumstances that are not suitable for compulsory performance is to protect personal freedom, and it is necessary to consider how to find a balance between the two. First of all, the basis of compulsory performance lies in the principle of strict compliance with the contract, with the aim of maintaining the binding force of the contract. The main purpose of the principle of strict compliance with the contract is to protect the transaction and trust, to give the contract future effect, and the parties to the contract promise to pay at the expense of each other financially at the time of signing the contract, and at the same time represent the need to be bound by it in the event of a change in the status of interests after the fact. However, if too much of the right to terminate the contract is given to the breaching party, it is easy to lead to breach of trust, which creates a de facto incentive for the breaching party to choose to deliberately breach the contract and claim the termination of the contract for reasons such as obtaining greater benefits. Although it is not obvious in individual cases, it will increase the distrust and psychological prevention costs in the contract negotiation and performance process of the entire industry, and the parties to the contract may take more other risk prevention measures, which will ultimately disrupt the transaction order. For Internet celebrity anchors, due to the high degree of attention of the masses, the "sudden" change of company and platform will generally be accompanied by negative public opinion, which is obviously very different from the default "job hopping is a reasonable and normal phenomenon" in the ordinary workplace, and negative public opinion may have a certain impact on the career of Internet celebrity anchors; Therefore, the choice between rescission and continued performance should also be cautious.
At the same time, some scholars continue to argue that forcing the debtor to perform its obligations will destroy a high degree of personal dependence, or that it is completely personal in nature, such as requiring artistic or scientific personal skills, and if the performance is enforced, it will endanger the debtor's personal freedom and personal dignity. From another point of view, with the development of the times, more and more jobs have personal dependence, and it is difficult to replace the work of specific subjects, even the teaching profession. For example, under the model training of an educational institution, teachers' teaching thinking and teaching mode will inevitably have institutional characteristics, and they can effectively improve their teaching skills by completing the teaching tasks during their tenure, which to a certain extent reflects the "competitive advantage" of the institution that is different from other teaching and auxiliary platforms. If this kind of contract that relies on one's own skills can be directly terminated due to personal dependence, it will inevitably cause injustice to the other party. In addition, the phenomenon of "riding a donkey to find a horse" is common in brokerage contracts, that is, when an online celebrity anchor finds a better business opportunity, he refuses to perform and seeks to terminate the contract on reasons of personal dependence such as physical discomfort and sudden arrangements, and then signs another performing arts contract with higher returns after the contract is terminated. In such cases, it is necessary to consider whether the personal freedom of the debtor has indeed been endangered, or whether the principle of strict compliance with contract has been fundamentally undermined.
(2) Refine account attribution agreements
Since account attribution is usually decided to the influencer anchor in practice, the brokerage company should make more prior agreements and regulations, and refine the relevant issues as much as possible. For example, clauses with strong personal dependence and property rights and interests should be separately stipulated in the contract, and clauses with personal exclusivity should be specified in detail to divide ownership. Based on the hierarchical signing system for anchors, it can be agreed that if the contract is terminated and the account is owned by the company or belongs to an individual, the work produced during the performance of the contract can be owned by which party, and at the same time, the cooperative relationship can be strengthened, so as to increase the stickiness between the MCN organization and the contracted object.
(3) Non-compete clauses apply
In July 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People's Republic of China and others jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Safeguarding the Labor Protection Rights and Interests of Workers in New Employment Forms (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"), which stated that "workers shall not be illegally restricted from employment on multiple platforms". However, the Guiding Opinions only emphasize that restrictions must not be violated, and there are no clear provisions in the current normative documents on how to legally comply with non-compete restrictions in industries such as new types of live broadcasting. Some scholars believe that the application of non-compete rules to new working methods is legitimate, and although brokerage contracts are mixed contracts, they have certain characteristics of labor contracts, and the regulatory factors in the field of labor contract law should be taken into account when solving the problem of the application of non-compete clauses. The author agrees with this view. At the same time, referring to the non-compete clause in the labor contract, which is a non-compete model for the company's executives, head managers and highly skilled personnel, corresponding to the brokerage contract, the non-compete clause can be stipulated for Internet celebrity anchors who have reached a certain fan order of magnitude and traffic level based on the grading system, which not only protects the rights and interests of small anchors but also balances the interests of large anchors and MCN companies. To sum up, when dealing with disputes over non-compete clauses, the relevant part of the brokerage contract can be regarded as a "quasi-labor contract" for legal application, and the corresponding non-compete clauses in the field of brokerage contracts can be formulated according to the hierarchical signing to settle the disputes.
Finally, when the improvement of non-compete clauses outside the labor contract has not yet been implemented and the controversy is still large, a different way of thinking can be used to litigate: if the online celebrity anchor does sign a contract with another MCN organization during the existence of the contract, or violates the contract to broadcast live on other platforms, he can file a lawsuit against the third-party company or platform for unfair competition, so as to fight for rights and make up for certain losses.
conclusion
In the context of the increasing prosperity and development of the online entertainment industry, the strong personal dependency embodied in brokerage contracts is likely to cause further expansion of disputes, and some issues that need to be resolved urgently, such as whether the scope of mandatory application of personal dependency clauses can be expanded on a case-by-case basis, how to divide the ownership of accounts in contracts terminated, how to introduce non-compete clauses, and other disputes, should be responded to as soon as possible, and the adjudication standards should be unified, and the detailed setting of brokerage contracts should also be further considered. In short, it is necessary to establish an industry standard for the "hierarchical signing" of brokerage contracts as soon as possible to provide guidance for the determination of points and the cessation of disputes.