Employee not entitled to owner's profits

Pudong New Area People's Court has ruled that an online shop owner is not required to share her profits with an employee she hired to purchase items for her in the US, the court said Monday.

The plaintiff, surnamed Wang, sued the store owner for 1.3 million yuan ($213,671) in profits she claimed she was owed as the owner's business partner, according to a court press release.

Wang had met the store owner, surnamed Fang, over the Internet while she was living in the US. After Fang opened the store on taobao.com in 2008, she asked Wang to buy cosmetics from the US for the business, the court said. She gave Wang a credit card under her name to pay for the purchases.

At some point later, the two women started arguing over how to divide the profits and Fang locked Wang out of the business, changing the username and password for the online store.

Wang argued that Fang had promised they would evenly share the profits when she first opened the business.

However, Fang responded that she paid Wang by commission based on their sales and never agreed to a fixed amount. Fang said she paid Wang 500,000 yuan in 2011 to cover the goods she purchased and her commission.

The court decided that Wang did not provide enough evidence to prove she was Fang's business partner, especially considering Wang made all of the purchases on Fang's credit card. The court also noted that Wang did not produce a contract that stated they would split the store's profits.