JLR ordered to destroy seized BYD files after losing first round in Defender copy fight

JLR has lost the opening round of its legal fight with BYD over the Ti7. On 11 November, a court in The Hague lifted the evidence preservation order it had granted at JLR's request, meaning the British automaker must now have the digital documents seized from BYD's Dutch offices destroyed. If it doesn't, JLR faces a coercive fine of €50,000 per hour, capped at €500,000.

The documents were grabbed in August, when bailiffs secured digital files from two BYD sites in Schiedam and Hoofddorp. The suspicion driving the raid: that BYD may have dismantled a Defender and reverse-engineered individual technologies for the Ti7's development. Both companies have stayed quiet, citing the ongoing proceedings, so whether that suspicion holds up is still unresolved.

BYD pushed back hard on the seizure, complaining that its scope swept up masses of confidential business documents with nothing to do with the dispute. The court largely agreed. It found the preservation wasn't needed to prove an alleged breach of EU design rights for the Defender, nor to assess damages, since BYD hasn't sold the Ti7 anywhere in the EU yet — so no economic harm from the model is apparent. The judge also said BYD met its cooperation obligations during the seizure, and JLR's €500,000 claim was not awarded. On top of that, JLR must reimburse BYD €25,376.57 in legal costs.

None of this clears BYD of copying. The hearing only examined whether the search was lawful, and JLR is pressing its claims through separate proceedings — one in The Hague over EU design rights for the Defender, another in Rotterdam covering copyright infringement and alleged unfair imitation. No rulings have landed on either allegation so far.

The Ti7 itself has been on sale in China under the Fang Cheng Bao brand since September 2025, and recently cracked the top 10 best-sellers there. Its angular body, upright front and square wheel arches echo the Defender. In the UK, it arrives as a seven-seater from January 2027, with a plug-in hybrid pairing a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine and electric motors for 300 kW of system output. BYD says the 35.6-kWh battery delivers up to 119 kilometres of WLTP electric range, and the starting price is £47,995 — well under the minimum £68,465 for a seven-seat Land Rover Defender 110.

JLR has walked this road before. In 2019 it won a dispute against Jiangling Motor over the Landwind X7. Its Chinese ties also run deep: the Chery joint venture stretches back to 2014, CJLR invested 7BN yen (over 900 million euros) in 2018 to turn its Changshu facility into an EV testing, R&D and manufacturing site, and in 2024 the two created the Freelander joint venture brand — the same year JLR signed a deal to use Chery's electric platform. Freelander most recently showed its Concept 97 in Shanghai.