LegitScript, which has gone after domain name registrars in the past, is sued by supplement makers.
Three supplement makers have sued LegitScript, a company that helps web service providers and banks screen for illegitimate pharmacies and questionable supplements.
SanMedica International LLC, Novex Biotech, LLC, and Carter-Reed Company, LLC allege that LegitScript is wrongfully flagging its products, which is preventing the companies from promoting the products on websites.
Domain name companies are familiar with LegitScript because the group, funded in part by pharmaceutical companies, has gone after registrars that it says were allowing illegitimate online pharmacies to register domain names with them.
In its lawsuit, the plaintiffs say that LegitScript has turned its attention to supplements after mastering the process of taking down bad online pharmacies. They believe that LegitScript uses the wrong criteria to determine if a supplement should be added to its blacklist that is used by companies like Facebook, Google and Visa.
The full lawsuit is here (pdf).
Robert Monster says
LegitScript are thugs. I posted on this topic on Epik’s blog:
https://epik.com/blog/why-i-stood-up-to-legitscript.html
They are subversive, manipulative, and resort to every bullying tactic possible with the objective of controlling the supply chain from end to end.
These are not humanitarians. They are a bought and paid for proxy of big pharma. Full stop.
To be clear, I don’t condone anyone selling fake pills. However, I do believe in due process and accountability.
If someone is selling fake pills, let that be proven in a qualified court and let that party be held accountable.
However, bullying is not right. It is a tribute to our enduring status as the world’s oldest constitutional republic, that due process be allowed.
Joseph Peterson says
I’d second Rob’s remarks above. LegitScript is a huge drain on registrar productivity, and they undermine registrant rights by setting a terrible precedent.
Their incessant demands eat up hours of my time on a weekly basis – time I’d rather put toward innovative new feature or helping actual customers.
Merely because we ask for independent adjudication of some kind, domain registrars become a target for slander, harassment, intimidation, and (it seems) entrapment schemes.
The message from LegitScript is this: “Suspend domains because we say so, or else we’ll throw a rock through your shop window.”