Chinese teens who urinated into Haidilao hotpot in Shanghai ordered to pay more than US$300,000 in compensation
Damages include reputational and business losses done to Haidilao as well as legal fees, said the Huangpu District People's Court of Shanghai.
A waitress waits for customers at a Haidilao hot pot restaurant in a shopping mall complex in Beijing on Mar 13, 2025. (Photo: AFP/Jade Gao)
SHANGHAI: A court in Shanghai has ordered two teenagers, and their families, to pay 2.2 million yuan (US$308,785) in damages to Chinese hotpot giant Haidilao - following a viral video stunt which showed them urinating into their hotpot broth.
In a verdict delivered on Friday (Sep 12),the Huangpu District People's Court of Shanghai found the culprits, both 17 years old and identified as Tang and Wu, had intentionally committed the act on Feb 24.
They were dining in a private room at a Haidilao outlet in Shanghai and had taken turns to stand on the table and urinate into their hot pot, also recording videos of each other committing the act.
Wu first posted the video on social media on Feb 27, which quickly went viral. Both teenagers have since said they were fully aware that the stunt would go viral and understood the negative social impact it would cause.
Haidilao filed a lawsuit on Mar 14, requesting that both teenagers and their parents publicly apologise and compensate the company for more than 23 million yuan in losses.
The teenagers were ordered to pay 130,000 yuan for tableware losses and cleaning expenses, and 2 million yuan for Haidilao’s reputational damages and business losses, as well as 70,000 yuan in legal fees.
Court papers did not address consequences of non-payment.
The Global Times reported that the case had involved disputes over “reputational rights and property damage”.
An opinion piece published on the Shanghai Observer news site said the incident served as a “wake-up call” to misbehaving children and their parents.
All six defendants, Tang, Wu, and their parents, were held jointly responsible for issuing public apologies to be carried in designated newspapers, the court ruled.
It also said that both sets of parents had failed in their guardianship duties, which led the two teenagers to commit the act.
Haidilao operates more than 1,300 restaurants across China and has expanded globally to over 10 countries, including South Korea, Singapore, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
In March, the company announced that over 4,000 diners who visited the affected outlet after the incident would be compensated.
“We fully understand that the distress caused to our customers by this incident cannot be fully compensated for by any means,” the company said in a public statement shared on Mar 12.
"We are willing to do our utmost to take responsibility."
It added that all tableware had been destroyed and replaced, with the entire store also deeply sanitised.
