E360 Insight CEO Dave Linhardt, the e-mail marketer who is waging a well-publicized legal battle against anti-spam blacklisting concern Spamhaus, has filed suit against Comcast, this newsletter has learned.
The complaint, filed Jan. 15 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, accuses Comcast of unfairly blocking e360’s e-mail from reaching subscribers.
According to e360, in one typical instance, an error message said e360’s e-mail was blocked from reaching subscribers because Comcast’s filters determined that e-mail from e360’s servers had been “sent in patterns which are characteristic of spam.”
Linhardt contends he does not spam. The complaint alleges that e360 has been Sender Score Certified by Return Path, a designation the deliverability firm gives to non-spamming clients.
However, George Bilbrey, head of Return Path’s delivery assurance unit said e360 had not been certified.
“He applied and didn’t gain admittance to the program,” Bilbrey said, declining to elaborate.
Meanwhile, Linhardt’s complaint also accuses Comcast of tying up e360’s equipment by sending bogus response data and, as a result, interfering with e360’s ability to send e-mail to recipients who weren’t Comcast subscribers.
The complaint claims that Comcast’s alleged interference with e360’s business relationships cost the firm $4.5 million a year from 2005 through 2007.
“The goal with Comcast is get them to agree to allow our double-confirmed e-mail messages through. We have tried to contact them for over a year now,” Linhardt said in an e-mail exchange with this newsletter. “They have never responded to any of our block removal requests.”
He continued: “We can’t think of any reason why they would want to get in the way of e-mails our mutual customers have asked for, and then double-confirmed their interest in. Currently, Comcast is blocking 100% of our double-confirmed messages. We think this interference with our legitimate business is improper.”
The complaint also accuses Comcast of sending e360 bogus bounce information, causing the marketer to remove e-mail addresses from its file that were still active. The suit claims the false bounce information cost it almost $2.5 million.
The suit asks for more than $12 million in compensatory damages and $9 million in punitive damages.
Comcast did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
Linhardt has been in a long legal battle with anti-spam outfit Spamhaus. He won an $11.7 million default judgment against Spamhaues in 2006 when representatives of the anti-spam blacklister failed to show up to defend themselves in court.
Spamhaus appealed the judgment. A federal appeals court vacated it in September, and sent it back to district court to recalculate damages.
In a separate lawsuit, Ohio attorney John “Jack” Ferron filed a complaint against Linhardt, claiming e360 sent Ferron hundreds of e-mails that constituted false advertising.
The complaint asked for $200 per violation, which could amount to $160,000 or more, Ferron said. Linhardt moved to have the suit dismissed, claiming the Ohio court lacked jurisdiction. Ferron said as of last week, his firm was engaged in discovery aiming to prove Linhardt’s firm does business in Ohio and that, as a result, the Ohio court has jurisdiction.
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