Qihoo 360 has been ordered to pay Baidu RMB385,000 (US$58,333) for unfair competition after Qihoo’s security tool identified Baidu’s Tool Bar and Address Bar as "malicious plug-ins."
Qihoo 360 identified Baidu’s Tool Bar as malware and posted negative comments on 360’s website to persuade users to uninstall the tool.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said this was unfair competition, China.org.cn reported.
Qihoo 360 argued that its security tool doesn’t have any relationship with Baidu’s search service. These two tools by China’s largest search engine also appeared in the Trojan virus scanning results on Qihoo’s anti-virus tool.
Qihoo 360 designated these two tools as "virus" and warned that they "posted a security threat to users’ computers."