Case Description

Jiamou is a WeChat merchant. In order to expand his business, Jiamou has registered more than ten WeChat accounts. Mr. A launched these WeChat accounts into video accounts and official account, and published a large number of marketing videos and articles to attract many fans. At the same time, he also added a large number of WeChat friends with purchase needs. After accumulating a large amount of customer resources, Party A transferred these WeChat signals to other WeChat merchants such as Party B and Party C with customer needs. After that, due to the transfer payment dispute, Party A filed a lawsuit to the court. After trial, the court determined that the WeChat account sales agreement was invalid, and ruled to reject all litigation claims from Party A.

Lawyer Analysis

1、 WeChat account belongs to citizens' personal information

Article 76, paragraph 5, of the Network Security Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that "Personal information refers to various information recorded in electronic or other ways that can identify the personal identity of a natural person alone or in combination with other information, including but not limited to the name, date of birth, ID number, personal biometric information, address, telephone number, etc."
According to Article 24 of the "Network Security Law of the People's Republic of China" and Article 5 of the "Regulations on the Management of Internet User Account Names", network users should provide true identity information, and Internet information service providers should require Internet information service users to register their accounts after authenticating their true identity information.

A natural person's WeChat account needs to be registered through a real name system. The account records the name, ID number, mobile phone number, e-mail and other information of the natural person. These information, used alone or in combination, can be locked and identified as specific natural persons, and are proprietary and should belong to personal information of citizens. In addition, the language, photos, videos, location information, and the use of small programs reflected in daily WeChat friends or chat content also reflect indirect information such as the account holder's personal characteristics, home address, whereabouts information, health status, and social relationships. The combined use of these information can also identify the WeChat holder himself, which may constitute personal or private information for citizens. Therefore, the WeChat account traded by A contains a large amount of personal information from WeChat friends.

2、 The contract for buying and selling WeChat accounts with personal information of others is invalid

Article 111 of the Civil Code stipulates that the personal information of natural persons is protected by law. Any organization or individual that needs to obtain personal information from others shall obtain and ensure information security in accordance with the law, and shall not illegally collect, use, process, or transmit personal information from others, or illegally trade, provide, or disclose personal information from others.

The WeChat account being traded does not have value in itself, and the actual transaction between the buyer and seller is the traffic advantage formed within the account and the large amount of customer resources in the address book. In the early stage, Jia added a large number of WeChat friends through promotion. A customer has added a WeChat friend for reasons such as purchasing products or obtaining relevant information. At this time, Party A obtained consent for obtaining the customer's personal information. However, these customers who provide personal information do not allow Party A to provide their personal information to a third party or conduct transactions. The personal information obtained by Party A through buying and selling WeChat accounts is in violation of legal prohibitions and should be invalid.

3、 Not all network accounts are non transferable

Currently, the Internet has penetrated into all aspects of life, with various accounts emerging in an endless stream. In practice, not all accounts are not transferable, and the effectiveness of the transfer behavior mainly depends on the content of the account. As mentioned earlier, personal information refers to information that has a certain degree of identifiability through which a specific individual's identity can be locked. "If the information involved in the account does not involve the personal information of others, such as transferring a game account used by oneself, and the account does not involve the personal information of others, it does not necessarily lead to the invalidity of the account transfer.".
To sum up, if it involves transferring an account, it is recommended to delete and clear the content that may involve other people's personal information before proceeding with the transaction.