HONG KONG — A pair of teenagers who filmed themselves peeing into a hotpot broth have been ordered, along with their parents, to apologize and pay more than $300,000 in damages by a Chinese court, state media reported.
The 17-year-olds, whose last names are Wu and Tang, took turns to stand on a table and urinate into the broth in a private dining room at a branch of the Haidilao chain restaurant in the city of Shanghai, according to a report Friday by the state-run broadcaster CCTV News.
One of the pair then proceeded to post a video showing their “intentional” act of the urination on social media despite being “fully aware” of potential negative impact, the report said about the ruling at Shanghai’s Huangpu District People’s Court.
After the post went viral, Haidilao apologized about the incident and assured customers that all utensils at the restaurant had been “destroyed and replaced.”
The company also refunded more than 4,000 affected dine-in orders and gave each customer extra compensation worth 10 times their original payment.
In March, two catering companies, likely linked to Haidilao, sued Tang, Wu, and their parents, demanding a public apology and more than 23 million yuan ($3 million) in damages for business losses, reputational harm and other related costs.
The court ruled that Haidilao’s full refunds to affected customers were reasonable and directly related to the incident involving the teenagers. But it said the tenfold compensation lacked legal causation and was deemed a “voluntary business decision,” CCTV News reported.
The judgment also ruled that the teenagers and their parents should issue apologies in designated newspapers to the catering companies, and the parents would bear financial liability for their actions.
The court ruling shows that parents will risk “heavy penalties” if they fail to supervise their kids, China Comment, an influential magazine of the ruling Communist Party, said in an editorial Monday.
“This behavior can no longer be dismissed as a simple prank,” it said, slamming it as “extreme disregard for others’ rights and a blatant challenge to social norms.”
Authorities in China have been dealing with food safety issues related to prank-like behaviors at times. In August, Hong Kong police arrested a 63-year-old man for allegedly adding urine to soft drinks in supermarkets.