Craigslist’s days of glory might be done, but an uncompetitive and antitrust charge might just cause a momentary revival of the site. Craigslist has been accused of monopoly by 3Taps in a countersuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
You might not have logged on Craigslist for a while now, although at some point you used to do it on a daily basis. Those days of glory has one company reacting to Craigslist’s legal action with a countersuit. Whereas Craigslist is accusing 3Taps and PadMapper of using listings without permission, 3Taps is charging with uncompetitive and monopoly claims.
This Monday, in federal court in San Francisco, 3Taps decided to take action against Craigslist’s own legal claims against the company. They chose to accuse Craigslist of monopoly behavior, claiming the site’s “dominance over classified listing was stifling innovation and hurting consumers”.
In a statement published on the 3Taps website, Greg Kidd, CEO and founder, accused Craigslist of spending “heavily to bully and intimidate companies that challenge them” while it leaves consumers “deprived of better ways to find and execute real-time exchange transactions”. “Craigslist uses its monopoly position to achieve huge annual profits without sinking any meaningful costs into research and development or innovation” Greg Kidd adds.
“The basis of our antitrust counterclaim and defense against Craiglist’s baseless lawsuit is simple: public facts are public property – openly and equally available to all businesses and consumers” says the 3Taps CEO. “Sham copyright claims and unenforceable terms of use cannot stand when they deceives users, intimated innovators or thwart a competitive marketplace” Greg Kidd explains.
Back in July, Craigslist filed a lawsuit against 3Taps and Padmapper claiming both companies have violated copyright and trademark policies. However, the Times notes that Craigslist has made a habit from hitting competitors with copyright infringement claims when their tried to build a business on its platform.
Shewin Siy, VP of legal affairs for Public Knowledge, feels that Craigslist is going to have a hard time proving the copyright violation. “The vast majority of postings on Craigslist aren’t going to be covered by copyright anyway. For something to be copyrighted, it has to have at least a ‘modicum of creativity’” he explained.
