Wolfoo found to have copied Peppa Pig, London judge orders removal of all videos from platforms including YouTube

Wolfoo is found to have copied Peppa Pig, after a London high court judge ordered the removal of all Wolfoo videos from online platforms including YouTube, according to The Guardian. Hasbro, which owns the rights to Peppa Pig, brought the case against SConnect, the Vietnamese company behind Wolfoo, arguing that the series used copyrighted elements to mimic a global children’s brand.

The court focused on audio as the most straightforward evidence, with Hasbro and Peppa Pig’s creators at Astley Baker Davies alleging that Wolfoo repeatedly reused short Peppa Pig sound clips. The judge described the copying as “prolific” and “longstanding”, and found the evidence of reused audio compelling. In the sample examined, Peppa Pig sound clips were identified in all 92 English-language Wolfoo videos reviewed and in 75% of the foreign-language videos, the paper reports. The order requires removals to be completed by a deadline set for Monday afternoon in Britain.

The case illustrates how children’s media scales on platforms where distribution is effectively free but enforcement is expensive. Wolfoo, launched in 2018, has accumulated hundreds of millions of views across YouTube, YouTube Kids and the Wolfoo World website, The Guardian reports, with versions dubbed into multiple languages. That reach turns small production shortcuts into large commercial advantages: a recognisable sound palette can help a series feel familiar to toddlers and caregivers, and platform recommendation systems do not ask who owns an exclamation like “Hooray!” before pushing the next clip.

SConnect denied infringement and argued that any Peppa Pig audio in videos made before mid-2020 came from an independent third-party contractor acting without permission, while later videos used original sounds created in-house. The judge rejected the attempt to ring-fence liability to contractors and found the claim about post-mid-2020 in-house audio could be disproved, according to the report. SConnect also sought to narrow the remedy, arguing that removals should apply only to the videos examined rather than to all Wolfoo content.

Hasbro and Astley Baker Davies also argued that Wolfoo’s appearance and artwork were similar enough to mislead young viewers, but the litigation strategy concentrated on audio because it was easier to prove. SConnect, The Guardian writes, objected to the breadth of the removal order, which it said extended beyond the UK to the EU and World Trade Organization member states. The judge described the copying as extensive and seemingly endemic in the English-language catalogue.

The order does not change how easily a children’s channel can be built on a global platform; it changes who must now do the work of taking it down. The judge’s deadline, set for Monday afternoon, turns copyright enforcement into a compliance task measured in hours and URLs.