some live broadcast contracts contain clauses that are unfavorable to anchors
2024-09-20
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image courtesy of visual china
college students who entered the live broadcast room to earn a living are "trapped" due to contract disputes and become defendants in court or parties in the arbitration tribunal.
ban xiaohui, associate professor at the school of law of wuhan university, has long been concerned about the issue of new employment forms. he believes that the basis for these live broadcast companies to sue or initiate arbitration is the breach of contract clauses in the contracts they signed with the anchors. the company has a dominant position in the contract signing process, and the two parties usually sign a standard contract that does not allow for modification or negotiation. college anchors lack the ability to bargain over the terms of the contract and lack awareness of legal risks. this may bring a series of adverse consequences, such as unfair contract terms and excessive risks and responsibilities on the part of the anchor.
zhang mouhao, a 2022 master's student majoring in law at southwest university, is currently interning at chongqing bayu law firm. in his spare time, he often shares tips on how anchors can protect their rights on a social platform, and provides paid consulting services such as contract review and rights protection. in the past four months, more than 100 people have come to him to review their contracts, most of whom are students or college graduates who have just graduated.
he told reporters that these contracts have some things in common: first, the contract will state that the two parties are in a cooperative relationship; second, the cooperation period is generally relatively long, ranging from half a year to three years; third, the company's liability for breach of contract is weakened, the anchor's liability for breach of contract is strengthened, and a high amount of liquidated damages is stated.
in july this year, three students from a hubei university and wuhan qifei culture media co., ltd. went to arbitration over the termination of their contract. after reading the contracts signed by the three people, ban xiaohui pointed out that what they signed was a cooperation agreement, not a labor contract. under the cooperation relationship, the anchors cannot enjoy the protection of the labor contract, and the dispute resolution is mainly based on the civil contract rules.
in terms of the duration of the cooperation, the cooperation period between these college students and the company is 3 years. the number of live broadcast days per month must be greater than 26 days, no less than 130 hours per month, and an average of 5 hours per day. the contract has an automatic extension clause. within 1 month before the expiration of the agreement, either party a or party b must send a written notice of termination to the other party, otherwise the contract will be automatically extended for 3 years. if the anchor's "performance" is excellent, the contract will be automatically extended for 3 or 6 years based on the number of fans and income.
the minimum three-year cooperation period is enough to bind the two parties together. according to the contract, if the show is not broadcast for 7 consecutive days in a month, it will be considered as suspension, which is a breach of contract.
ban xiaohui said that there is nothing wrong for college students to work part-time as anchors to legally earn a living, but if they invest a lot of time and energy in it, it may affect their normal academic, social and personal development.
in terms of liability for breach of contract, the contract specifies more than a dozen items of liability that the anchor must bear for breach of contract, including who will pay the attorney fees and notarization fees. if the anchor breaches the contract, the company can, in accordance with the contract, require the anchor to pay 10 times the total cooperation income (signing fee, traffic support, profit sharing, subsidy fees, etc.) as compensation. zhao yaqin, a lawyer at hubei zun erguang (hongshan) law firm, believes that liquidated damages have compensation, punishment and guarantee functions and should be fair and reasonable, but the liquidated damages agreed in these contracts excessively increase the obligations of the anchor. according to article 585 of the civil code, if the agreed liquidated damages are excessively higher than the losses caused, the people's court or arbitration institution may appropriately reduce them at the request of the parties.
in terms of dispute resolution, these contracts all state that if negotiations fail, arbitration should be conducted through the wuhan arbitration commission.
zhao yaqin said that arbitration is a one-time decision, unlike court litigation, which goes through the first and second instance procedures. commercial arbitration is characterized by confidentiality, speed, and simple procedures. for companies, the arbitration results will not be made public, which is conducive to protecting the company's reputation. "but it is not 'friendly' to anchors because they only have one chance."
china youth daily·china youth network intern reporter yang lei reporter lei yu source: china youth daily
source: china youth daily
