Monday, November 9, 2009

SnapNames Scandal Gets First Lawsuit

The first class action lawsuit against SnapNames, the domain name auction firm owned by Los Angeles-based Oversee.net, was filed today in Florida, in the Miami-Date County Circuit Court, according to law firm Cueto Law Group, P.L. According to the law firm, it is filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of lead Plaintiff Carlos A. Cueto and others who participated in online auctions for domain names. The lawsuit alleges that a former vice president at SnapNames.com secretly bid on domain name auctions, driving up costs for other bidders. The scandal over a shill bidding scheme at SnapNames surfaced last Wednesday, when SnapNames told its users that it would be providing refunds after discovering that an employee had been putting in shill bids on domains on the site. SnapNames auctions off expired and expiring domain names to the highest bidder.

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