Tesla has been known to have disputes with other companies from time to time, though this behavior isn’t unprecedented when you understand all that they have to protect.
According to Yahoo Finance, Tesla is currently in an open dispute with Chinese e-commerce company Pinduoduo. The dispute was caused by a promotion Pinduoduo ran, in which the company offered five subsidized Tesla Model 3s to customers if 10,000 people signed up for its July sweepstakes.
However, when news of the winners first broke, Tesla refused to deliver the cars, in spite of the fact that they would have received full price.
"Pinduoduo said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Friday that it has confirmed that the consumer signed a subscription agreement with Tesla for the vehicle, and the consumer intends to use it for his/her own use and does not wish to resell it. "
— JC Oviedo (@JCOviedo6) August 14, 2020
Although Tesla and Pinduoduo did, in fact, sign a contract, the contract stated that the cars were for “consumer-use only,” and that the cars were not eligible for resale – this is apparently the clause in question, as Tesla seems to consider this an inappropriate use of their cars. Most who have speculated as to the reason for the dispute have offered the explanation that Tesla wants complete control over the delivery process to its customers, and that it did not have that option with the way Pinduoduo ran this promotion.
After one winner threatened to sue Tesla, the Model 3 was delivered Tuesday, though other winners have yet to receive their earned vehicles.
While the dispute is a little confusing in nature and it’s hard to isolate why Tesla would oppose a promotion such as this, the company also just reached its all-time high in the stock market, and their success shows no signs of stopping.
