Qihoo 360 ordered to pay $820K to Tencent in monopoly case

The long-term dispute between Qihoo 360 Technology Co and Tencent Holdings Ltd over unfair competition finally came to an end as the Supreme People's Court ruled in favor of Tencent on Monday.

Supreme People's Court announced the final judgment of the case and ordered Qihoo 360 to pay 5 million yuan ($820,000) to Tencent as the latter's economic losses and reasonable right-safeguarding expenses.

Qihoo 360 was accused of unfair practices and malicious competition by using other companies' market position to promote its own products, said the court ruling.

Guangdong High People's Court ordered Qihoo 360 to pay 5 million yuan to Tencent in the case's first trail in April 2013.

The case is the first antitrust case in China's Internet industry as the two companies have been engaged in a drawn-out legal war since 2010.

The origin of their feud began on Sept 27, 2010, when Qihoo 360 accused Tencent of invading the privacy of its users through the use of QQ Doctor, a security program developed by Tencent for use with its popular QQ instant messaging service. Qihoo 360 claimed that Tencent has used the software to scan and monitor its users' personal information.

Following the complaint, Qihoo 360 released its own security software called "Koukou Guard" on Oct 29, 2010, claiming it could speed up QQ and offer more privacy to its users. However, Tencent responded by warning its users that the "Koukou Guard" could cause QQ to malfunction.

The dispute escalated when Tencent said on Nov 3, 2010, that it would shut down the QQ instant messaging service on computers that had security software created by Qihoo 360 installed on them.