WP Engine Escalates Legal Battle With Automattic and Mullenweg via @sejournal, @martinibuster

WP Engine escalated its Federal ailment by citing Automattic’s work of the WP Engine Tracker website arsenic grounds of intent to harm WP Engine and exposing customers to imaginable cybercrimes. The updated ailment incorporates caller actions by Mullenweg to further fortify their case.

A spokesperson for WP Engine issued a connection to Search Engine Journal astir the WP Engine Tracker website:

“Automattic’s wrongful and reckless work of customer’s accusation without their consent underscores wherefore we person moved for a preliminary injunction. WP Engine has requested the contiguous takedown of this accusation and looks guardant to the November 26th proceeding connected the injunction.”

Legal Complaint Amended With More Evidence

WP Engine (WPE) filed a ailment successful Federal tribunal seeking a preliminary injunction to forestall Matt Mullenweg and Automattic from continuing actions that harm WPE’s concern and their relationships with their customers. That ailment was amended with further details to enactment their allegations against Mullenweg and Automattic.

The ineligible ailment begins by stating successful general terms what gives emergence to their claim:

“This is simply a lawsuit astir maltreatment of power, extortion, and greed.”

It past grows progressively circumstantial by introducing grounds of however Automattic and Mullenweg proceed their “bad acts unabated” for the intent of harming WP Engine (WPE).

The amended assertion adds the following, quoting Mullenweg himself:

“Since then, Defendants person continued to escalate their war, unleashing a run to bargain WPE’s software, customers and employees. Indeed, conscionable days ago, Defendants were unambiguous astir their aboriginal plans:”

This is the connection Mullenweg made that is quoted successful the amended complaint:

“[S]ince this started [with WPE] they’ve had uh, we estimation tens of thousands of customers leave. . . . So, um you know, I deliberation implicit the adjacent fewer weeks, they’re really gonna suffer acold much than 8% of their concern . . . we’re astatine warfare with them. We’re . . . going to spell ceramic by ceramic and instrumentality . . . instrumentality each azygous 1 of their customers . . . if they weren’t astir conjecture what? . . . We’d happily person those customers, and successful information we’re getting a batch of them.”

WP Engine Tracker Site Used As Evidence

Automattic precocious created a website connected the WordPressEngineTracker.com domain called WP Engine Tracker that encourages WordPress Engine customers to leave, offering links to promotions that connection discounts and committedness a creaseless modulation to different web hosts.

WPE states that the WP Engine Tracker website is portion of a run to promote WPE customers to wantonness it, writing:

“Defendants besides created a webpage astatine wordpress.org offering “Promotions and Coupons” to person WPE customers to halt doing concern with WPE and power implicit to Automattic’s rival hosting companies similar wordpress.com and Pressable; they aboriginal added links to different competitors arsenic well.”

The WordPress Engine Tracker website calls attraction to the fig of sites that person abandoned WP Engine (WPE) since Matt Mullenweg’s September 21st nationalist denunciation of WP Engine and the commencement of his “nuclear” warfare against the web host. The amended Federal suit points to the September 21st day listed connected that tract arsenic further grounds tying Automattic to a run to harm WP Engine’s business.

The ineligible papers explains:

“Just past week, successful an evident effort to brag astir however palmy they person been successful harming WPE, Defendants created a website—www.wordpressenginetracker.com—that “list[s] . . . each domain hosted by @wpengine, which you tin spot diminution each day. 15,080 sites person near already since September 21st.

September 21 was not selected randomly. It is the time aft Defendants’ self-proclaimed atomic warfare began – an admittance that these lawsuit losses were caused by Defendants’ wrongful actions. In this bonzer onslaught connected WPE and its customers, Defendants included connected their disparaging website a downloadable record of ‘all [WPE] sites acceptable for a caller home’—that is, WPE’s lawsuit list, virtually inviting others to people and poach WPE’s clients portion Defendants’ attacks connected WPE continued..”

The intent of the supra allegations are to physique arsenic overmuch grounds that lend credence to WP Engine’s assertion that Automattic is actively trying to origin harm WP Engine’s business.

WPE Accuses Automattic Of Additional Harms

Another caller allegation against Automattic is that the spreadsheet offered for download connected the WP Engine Tracker website includes delicate accusation that is not publically disposable and could origin nonstop harm to WPE customers.

The amended Federal suit explains:

“Worse, this downloadable record contains backstage accusation regarding WPE’s customers’ domain names, including development, test, and pre-production servers—many of which are not intended to beryllium accessed publically and incorporate delicate oregon backstage information. Many of these servers are intentionally not indexed oregon different included successful nationalist hunt results due to the fact that the servers are not safe, unafraid oregon production-ready and not intended to beryllium accessed by the wide public.

By disclosing this accusation to the wide public, Defendants enactment these development, test, and pre-production domains astatine hazard for hacking and unauthorized access.”

WP Engine Tracker Site Part Of A Larger Strategy

WPE’s amended ailment alleges that the WP Engine Tracker tract is 1 portion of a larger strategy to origin harm to WP Engine’s concern that includes encouraging WPE employees to resign. The ineligible papers adds caller accusation of however the WP Engine Tracker website is conscionable 1 portion of a larger strategy to harm WPE’s business.

The updated papers adds the pursuing caller allegations arsenic grounds of WPE’s claims:

“Not contented with interfering with WPE’s lawsuit relations, Automattic has precocious escalated its tactics by actively recruiting hundreds of WPE employees, successful an evident effort to weaken WPE by sowing doubts astir the company’s aboriginal and enticing WPE’s employees to articulation Automattic:”

The papers includes a screenshot of an email solicitation seemingly sent to an worker that encourages them to articulation Automattic.

Screenshot Of Evidence Presented In Amended Complaint

Escalation Of Federal Complaint

WP Engine’s amended ailment against Mullenweg and Automattic invokes the Sherman Act (prohibiting monopolization to support a competitory marketplace), the Lanham Act (governing trademarks, mendacious advertising, and unfair competition), and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (addressing unauthorized machine entree and cybercrimes). The amendments necktie caller actions by Mullenweg and Automattic—such arsenic the instauration of the WP Engine Tracker website—directly to their claims, turning Mullenweg’s attacks connected WP Engine into evidence.

Read the amended Federal ailment here: (PDF).

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