January 15, 2021 - An amended consolidated complaint was filed.

August 20, 2020 - An investor in shares of Qutoutiao Inc. (NASDAQ: QTT) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws by Qutoutiao Inc. in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements made between September 14, 2018 and July 15, 2020.

China based Qutoutiao Inc. operates mobile platforms for the distribution, consumption, and sharing of light entertainment content in the People's Republic of China. On or around September 14, 2018, Qutoutiao Inc commenced its initial public offering ( IPO ), issuing 12 million American depositary shares ( ADSs ) priced at $7.00 per ADS.

On December 10, 2019, a report was published, alleging among other things, that the Company had overstated its revenues by recording non-existent advances from advertising customers. Moreover, the report alleged that Qutoutiao replaced its third-party advertising agent with a related party, thereby bypassing the agent’s oversight and allowing the Company to “perpetrate the unmitigated ad fraud that [Wolfpack] observed in [its] sample.” Qutoutiao Inc. reported that its annual Total Revenue rose from over 3.02 billion CNY in 2018 to over 5.57 billion CNY in 2019, and that its Net Loss increased from 1.94 billion in 2018 to 2.68 billion in 2019. Shares of Qutoutiao Inc. (NASDAQ: QTT) declined to as low as $2.26 per share in May 2020.

Then, on July 15, 2020, hosts of a consumer-rights gala in China stated that Qutoutiao had allowed ads on its platform promoting exaggerated or impossible claims from companies marketing weight-loss products. For example, one such ad offered free weight-loss products valued at $14,300 that would purportedly help users lose more than 30 pounds in a month.

According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges on behalf of purchasers of Qutoutiao Inc. (NASDAQ: QTT) common shares between September 14, 2018 and July 15, 2020, that the defendants violated Federal Securities Laws.

More specifically, the plaintiff claims that the Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that Qutoutiao replaced its advertising agent with a related party, thereby bypassing third-party oversight of the content and quality of the advertisements; (2) that the Company placed advertisements on its mobile app for products whose claims could not be substantiated and thus were considered false advertisements under applicable regulations; (3) that, as a result, the Company would face increasing regulatory scrutiny and reputational harm; (4) that, as a result, the Company’s advertising revenue was reasonably likely to decline; and (5) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects, were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.