Paramount Pictures Fined for Transformers: Age of Extinction Chinese Product Placement

A Chinese court on Thursday ordered Viacom's Paramount Pictures and a Chinese production partner to pay $295,000, or 2 million yuan, including incurred legal fees, to a tourist resort in a breach of contract dispute over product placement in Transformers: Age of Extinction.

The court in Chongqing found that Paramount and Chinese partner 1905 failed to fulfill their major obligations under the agreement, but later partially made up for it, the South China Morning Post reported, quoting China National Radio.

The management company for the Wulong Karst National Geological Park had brought the lawsuit, saying the two sides had agreed that a logo of the resort would appear in the fourth Transformers film's final edit.

The defendants had admitted that the logo didn't make the film, but they tried to make up for that by allowing director Michael Bay to make an advertising spot for the resort and leaving behind items built for the film as tourist attractions.

The court rejected a counter claim filed by Paramount due to Wulong Karst’s decision to only pay part of the agreed-upon fees once it found out its name and logo did not appear in the film.