BYD Wins a Round Against JLR as Hague Court Orders Seized Ti7 Files Destroyed

BYD has won an important procedural battle in its legal fight with Jaguar Land Rover. In a preliminary ruling on November 11, the District Court of The Hague overturned the August seizure of internal BYD records and ordered JLR to have the material destroyed. The court did not, however, rule on the central question of whether BYD's Ti7 SUV copies the Land Rover Defender.

What the judge ordered

According to CarNewsChina and Motor1, Judge H.F.R. van Heemstra set out the following:

• JLR must instruct the bailiff or court-appointed custodian to destroy the seized files within 24 hours of formal service of the ruling;
• missing the deadline triggers a penalty of €50,000 per hour, capped at €500,000;
• JLR is barred from taking any further steps under the original seizure authorisation;
• the ruling is enforceable immediately, even if it is appealed.

The court found that JLR did not need the documents to support its claim about the Ti7's exterior design, nor to calculate damages, because BYD has not yet sold the model in the European Union. The judge was explicit that the decision does not settle whether the Ti7 infringes JLR's intellectual property.

How the dispute unfolded

In August, bailiffs acting on an order obtained by JLR seized records at BYD's offices in Schiedam and Hoofddorp. The order was granted without BYD being heard, so the Chinese company had no chance to object in advance. An independent custodian held the files and JLR never received them directly. BYD later challenged the scope of the seizure, arguing that it swept up unrelated research and development material.

JLR alleges that the Ti7, sold in China as the Fang Cheng Bao Tai 7, copies the Defender's look, and suspects BYD of reverse-engineering the British SUV. A separate claim over the Defender's EU design rights is being heard in The Hague, while copyright and "slavish imitation" claims have been filed in Rotterdam. Neither company has commented publicly on the latest ruling.

The Ti7 is heading for UK showrooms

The case matters all the more because BYD is bringing the Ti7 to Britain. CarNewsChina reports that cars are arriving at dealers this month, with customer deliveries expected in January 2027. Key details:

• a single seven-seat Excellence AWD version priced at £47,995;
• a plug-in hybrid system pairing a 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine with two electric motors for a combined 300 kW (402 hp);
• a 35.6 kWh Blade battery with a claimed 119 km (74 miles) of electric range on the WLTP cycle;
• 0-100 km/h in a claimed 4.8 seconds.

That undercuts the £71,840 Land Rover Defender 110 P300e plug-in hybrid by a wide margin.

Why it matters

JLR has been here before: in 2019 it won a case against China's Jiangling Motor, whose Landwind X7 closely resembled the Range Rover Evoque. This time the opponent is the world's largest maker of electrified vehicles, which is expanding fast in Europe. The Hague ruling places no restrictions on Ti7 sales, but it does show that European courts will look hard at how far a rival can go in accessing a competitor's confidential information. The real verdict on the design will come only when the main cases are heard.