Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Travel firm sues affiliate for buying Gator pop-up ads

29 Jan 2003, 12:00 am

Travel web sites operator MetroGuide.com has sued its marketing partner Hotels.com, alleging that the company has infringed on MetroGuide's copyright and breached competition laws through its relationship with controversial internet ad company Gator.

MetroGuide's HotelGuide web site network offers hotel listings in 170 cities around the world. The company has, since January 2002, been an affiliate of Hotels.com, which provides the reservations back-end for MetroGuide's sites.

In its lawsuit filed on Monday in a federal court in Florida, MetroGuide alleges that Hotels.com has violated its copyright by placing pop-up ads that cover the logo of the HotelGuide network. "Some customers", MetroGuide alleges, "while trying to book a hotel on the HotelGuide service, saw a Hotels.com ad, unauthorised by MetroGuide, appear on top of the HotelGuide web site. These pop ups... obscured the HotelGuide brand and content underneath them, enticing the customer to book the room directly with Hotels.com."

The company also claims that Hotels.com engaged in unfair business practices by rewarding competing affiliates who stole MetroGuide's copyrighted content: "We have seen various affiliates of Hotels.com receive financially lucrative placements in search engines resulting in part from copying our content onto their web sites."

MetroGuide believes that HotelGuide's contract with Gator, the firm that provides software supporting pop-up ads, is to blame for the dispute. The company said in a statement: "Disputes of this sort are normally seen between competing entities that have no business relationship... To the best of our knowledge, of the number of Gator advertising-related lawsuits out there, ours is the only suit alleging that a business partner has been caught using predatory advertising to steal away customers from one of its own business partners."

Although, according to the lawsuit, Hotels.com no longer contracts with Gator to display ads on the HotelGuide web sites, MetroGuide is seeking compensation for lost revenue.

In June 2002, Weight Watchers sued rival DietWatch.com for contracting with Gator to place pop-ups on user's screens when they visited WeightWatchers.com. Gator itself has been the subject of numerous legal complaints over copyright infringement, including one filed by a group of major publishers.