BEIJING: A court in China has ordered two teenagers to pay more than 2.2 million yuan (US$308,275) for peeing into a simmering pot of broth at a popular hotpot restaurant earlier in 2025.
The incident happened in February at the Shanghai branch of Haidilao, China’s largest hotpot chain.
The 17-year-olds urinated into a pot of broth at the restaurant, filmed themselves as they were doing it, and then posted a video of their drunken act online.
Their reckless stunt drew both disgust and a kind of morbid fascination online.
No diners were believed to have consumed the broth.
Still, Haidilao – known for its meticulous customer service and family-friendly atmosphere – offered compensation to more than 4,000 customers who visited the restaurant between Feb 24 and March 8.
The company issued refunds and paid each diner 10 times the cost of their meals.
It also replaced tableware and hotpot equipment and carried out extensive cleaning and disinfection.
In March, Haidilao sought more than 23 million yuan in damages from the teenagers and their parents, citing the payouts and other expenses.
Last week, the Shanghai court ruled that the teenagers violated the company’s property rights and reputation through “acts of insult”, and that their parents should share the blame.
The court awarded about 2 million yuan for reputational and operational damages, 130,000 yuan for losses related to tableware and cleaning, and 70,000 yuan in legal costs.
But the court declined to make the families responsible for the additional compensation Haidilao voluntarily provided to customers, describing it as a business decision rather than a legal necessity.
Founded in the 1990s in Sichuan Province, Haidilao has expanded rapidly, now operating more than 1,000 restaurants worldwide.
The chain is widely regarded as a standard-bearer of Chinese dining culture, where diners are entertained with services ranging from manicures to cotton candy while they wait for a table. - The Straits Times/ANN
