THE Supreme People’s Court (SPC) rejected an appeal by Qihoo 360 in its monopoly lawsuit against Shenzhen-based Tencent on Thursday, ending a three-year legal battle between the two Internet giants.

    The SPC maintained an earlier ruling stating that Tencent had not created a monopoly, and Qihoo 360’s appeal has been rejected, according to the SPC’s final judgment.

    Qihoo 360 was also ordered to pay 790,000 yuan (US$129,000) to Tencent in legal fees according to the first court decision made by the Guangdong Provincial Higher People’s Court in March last year.

    The SPC said “current evidence is not sufficient to prove Tencent’s dominance of the market,” though it admitted the company has taken more than 80 percent of the market share in both the PC-based and mobile instant messaging service markets.

    Tencent has more than 1 billion registered users for QQ, the most popular online chatting tool in China, while Qihoo 360, a leading anti-virus software provider, has over 300 million clients.

    The legal battle started in October 2011, when Qihoo 360 sued Tencent for hindering market competition and abusing its market position. It also asked for 150 million yuan as compensation.

    The first trial lasted for nearly a year starting April 18, 2012 and ended in a ruling in favor of Tencent.

    “We feel sorry for the result,” said a statement by Qihoo 360 on Thursday.

    Tencent said in a statement that the judgment is a milestone in leading and regulating the orderly competition of China’s Internet industry.

    (Xinhua)