Wickfire, LLC Found Liable for Intentional Interference With TriMax Media's Business

DALLAS - May 25, 2017 - PRLog -- An Austin based jury unanimously found that Wickfire, LLC, and its co-owners, Chet Hall, and Jon Brown, intentionally interfered with TriMax Media's business. However, the jury failed to award damages. TriMax has filed a notice of appeal regarding the lack of damages awarded as well as other portions of the jury verdict. The case was tried in the Western District of Texas, styled as Civil Action No. 14-CV-34.

The lawsuit centered around Google AdWords Auctions, an online-auction platform where companies like TriMax and Wickfire compete for advertising space. TriMax argued Wickfire intentionally interfered with TriMax's contracts by (1) paying kickbacks to merchant representatives in exchange for exclusivity agreements; (2) impersonating TriMax by placing unauthorized ads that plagiarized TriMax's ad copy and contained other identifying information of TriMax; (3) repeatedly clicking on TriMax ads in order to artificially increase TriMax's costs (known as "click fraud"); and (4) using an automated software program to manipulate the Google auction system (known as "bid jamming"). At trial, a financial expert testified that due to Wickfire's intentional interference over the past five years, TriMax's damages exceeded $22 million.

TriMax presented evidence to the jury that Wickfire had been suspended from over 200 Google accounts, violated merchant terms, and employed fake user agents and proxies to conceal its identity. The jury also saw evidence that Google referred to Wickfire as "Known Fraudsters" and that Wickfire registered the domain name "GoogleClickFraud.com".

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