CJ.com class action lawsuit, sued by their affiliates because of "adware" issues.

will76 · 11-14-2007, 12:40 AM

I am not sure if this has been posted here yet if so I apologize for the depulicate post. I would post this in the mainstream forum but this also has to do with "adware" and zango, and the results of this case can have an inpact on all of us.

CJ.com ( Commission Junction NOT Consumption Junction) is being sued by their affiliates in a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit started a few months back and has made it through motions to dissmiss and is still on course to go to trial in early 2008.

The reason CJ affiliates are sueing CJ.com is because they claim that CJ.com does not enforce it's own TOS when it comes to "adware". Some CJ.com affiliates use companies like ZANGO to make sales and in doing so it steals sales away from other CJ.com affiliates. CJ.com still makes the sale and the only one that loses out is their affiliates.

More information about the lawsuit: www.cjclassaction.com

Read the complaint, which also explains how zango works in legal terms very well http://www.cjclassaction.com/Carrier...aint_Final.pdf (Page 6, B.)

This is the first time affiliates have sued the affiliate program because of "adware", zango being the main one. Depending on how this case goes it could set precedence for future cases where affiliate program fail to protect ALL of their affiliates and allow some to openly use methods that steal from their other affiliates.

If you read the complaint, it is stated that CJ.com was well aware that some affiliates used adware and then did very little, to nothing, to stop this. Basically they just looked the other way because at the end of the day they didn't lose any sales, the sales were redistributed among their affiliates.

Wiggles · 11-14-2007, 12:45 AM

good, teach them a lessen, then maybe more will catch on and no longer ignore zango

glowlite · 11-14-2007, 12:53 AM

CJ's tricks are certainly not new will76, I stopped using them long ago. I hope they get everything coming to them. That will set a precedent that can be applied to other scum programs and scum advertisers/sponsors and scum promoters/affiliates.

Thanks for sharing.

glowlite · 11-14-2007, 12:55 AM

Just think how a "win" in this suit will pull the rug from under a multitude of adult sponsors.

will76 · 11-14-2007, 01:03 AM

How about this....

Think about those COMPANIES that straight up have been using Zango, you know Adult Friend Finder, Sex Search, Sex Bank Roll. IMO it is only logical that what they are doing is 10x worse then what CJ.com did. So if CJ.com can be sued and the case was not dismissed and is currently heading to trial, then a case against AFF should be a slam dunk.

Think about it. AFF openly admitted to using Zango on public forums like GFY. Lars' made several post on behalf of the company. One of his posts, which he said their attorny prepaired, acknowledged that they do it and that there is a problem.... the famous " adware colusions". I would fire that attorney lol. They said they were " working to find a solution". Months later Lars posts that they had stopped because it was no longer profitable to them. Now they are back at it again using zango. So a company like AFF uses zango to target their own domains, and then redirects the affiliate's traffic from site A to site B, where if the surfer signs up on Site B the affiliate does not get credit for the sale.
This is much worse than what CJ.com is being sued for. CJ.com is basically being sued for not taking action to prevent the bad act from happening. AFF the company, was the ones who where doing the bad act to their own affiliates.

AFF and friends are prime targets for a class action if any of their affiliates want to step up and hold them accountable.

Comrade · 11-14-2007, 01:11 AM

Interesting to see how this pans out, but won't this take years to come to a conclusion? These lawsuits are more about who has more cash to blow on lawyers rather than merit.

glowlite · 11-14-2007, 01:36 AM

I'm guessing that the 10's of 1000's of mainstream affiliates collectively have ample funds for legal fees. And our (US) legal system has been embracing the urgency required by cyber business the past couple years.

So no Comrade, I don't think it will drag out for years. And yes, I think there is ample funding for legal costs available.

dekaz · 11-14-2007, 03:18 AM

I quit using CJ ever since they took a few thousands away from me. The worst trial and error ever.

Head Boy · 11-14-2007, 03:27 AM

That's great news. All those zango installs will be affecting us with other sponsors - it's not just CJ that Zango targets.

pam · 11-14-2007, 07:18 AM

I do believe someone is putting a lawsuit into the works against Zango.

I can't use CJ. I signed up years ago and used my adult domain email and they immediately canned me for promoting them on sex sites, even though I was going to use them on my mainstream sites and hadn't even put up a single link. I tried to get reinstated and they told me I was permanently banned.

Tuula · 11-14-2007, 07:30 AM

Well that explains a few of the emails we've been getting recently and why some tempers have been flaring. There's alot of big boys in mainstream that are CJ affils that I imagine will be hopping on board, time to read some newsletters and see what they say.

Hentaikid · 11-14-2007, 09:01 AM

I signed up, but I had trouble signing up for programs that required you to have sales before they'd accept you, something of a catch 22. Never got anything and my account was suspended for inactivity because they told me they'd suspend it so I wasn't going to start promoting an account that could be suspended at any moment, lol.

Tuula · 11-14-2007, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hentaikid

I signed up, but I had trouble signing up for programs that required you to have sales before they'd accept you, something of a catch 22. Never got anything and my account was suspended for inactivity because they told me they'd suspend it so I wasn't going to start promoting an account that could be suspended at any moment, lol.

Yeah, alot of their policies make no sense to me, the absolute worst affiliate program that I ever tried signing up to though was the food network, the questions they ask and the information they want is pretty ridiculous IMHO.

Paul Markham · 11-14-2007, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comrade

Interesting to see how this pans out, but won't this take years to come to a conclusion? These lawsuits are more about who has more cash to blow on lawyers rather than merit.

Might be that the affiliates have the money, depends how many there are. Of course if they string it out it could be they end up paying the costs or going bankrupt.

The case against AFF is no slam dunk, if they never had it in their TOS. Lars made no secret he was using Zango. If the case against CJ is about them breaking their TOS it's then up to AFF afiliates to prove the same.

Will adult affiliates band together to sue anyone?

Hentaikid · 11-14-2007, 12:03 PM

Probably not, judging from past precedent

will76 · 11-14-2007, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

Might be that the affiliates have the money, depends how many there are. Of course if they string it out it could be they end up paying the costs or going bankrupt.

The case against AFF is no slam dunk, if they never had it in their TOS. Lars made no secret he was using Zango. If the case against CJ is about them breaking their TOS it's then up to AFF afiliates to prove the same.

Will adult affiliates band together to sue anyone?

You are off base on a lot of your comments.

AFF was using zango for over a year from what I can tell before it was made public so a lot of their affiliates were unaware of what they were doing. Even if all of the affiliates knew about this from the beginning it isn't a defense to say " well you didn't have to promote our company you could have stopped sending us traffic if you didn't like us using zango."

Having it in the TOS makes it simple, but even if it wasn't, what they are doing is tortious interference with your right to do business. It is no different than skimming imo which is fraud. Instead of blocking Zango, or trying to protect their affiliates from it, they do the complete opposite and embrace zango for themselves.

I am pretty sure that in most cases the legal firm will not charge upfront fees for a class action, however they will take like 50% of the winnings. The law firm sueing CJ.com seems egear to take these type of cases. If anyone is interested I would suggest contacting them and seeing if any fees are involved.

will76 · 11-14-2007, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pam

I do believe someone is putting a lawsuit into the works against Zango.

.

Yes, I have been told by the person doing this that he has hired a well known adult attorney and they are in the process of sueing Zango and a big adult affiliate program, which was the one using zango to target his site's traffic.

It's not my place to give out his name or further details since I don't believe this person has made a public announcement yet.

Things across the board for "adware" companies (and people/companies who use them) should get really interesting over the next year.

Paul Markham · 11-14-2007, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by will76

You are off base on a lot of your comments.

AFF was using zango for over a year from what I can tell before it was made public so a lot of their affiliates were unaware of what they were doing. Even if all of the affiliates knew about this from the beginning it isn't a defense to say " well you didn't have to promote our company you could have stopped sending us traffic if you didn't like us using zango."

Having it in the TOS makes it simple, but even if it wasn't, what they are doing is tortious interference with your right to do business. It is no different than skimming imo which is fraud. Instead of blocking Zango, or trying to protect their affiliates from it, they do the complete opposite and embrace zango for themselves.

I am pretty sure that in most cases the legal firm will not charge upfront fees for a class action, however they will take like 50% of the winnings. The law firm sueing CJ.com seems egear to take these type of cases. If anyone is interested I would suggest contacting them and seeing if any fees are involved.

Just trying to bring it down to earth. would be nice if we could sue companies like Zango. However common sense and being cautious tells me the mainstream would of weighed in with legal action if it was probable.

The good thing about taking a class action would be the disclosure of records. Then finding out who was buying the clicks could be a very heavy hammer to hit companies with. If lawyer discovers a company were buying clicks targeting their own affiliates traffic it might become criminal. Not sure but would definitely make it easier to win.

The momentum has to come from the affiliates to get together and put money into a pot. Hoping to get a class action on contingency might not be so easy.

We need to watch this one closely.

larrymax · 11-14-2007, 01:59 PM

How could they not know that this would eventually bite them in the ass? You have to APPLY to become a merchant and get APPROVED so it may be hard for them to claim that they did not know.

Dupont · 11-14-2007, 04:50 PM

Wonder how this pans out.. I hope they pay big

11-14-2007, 12:40 AM	#1 (permalink)
will76 Im addicted to Netpond Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 410 Points: 2,055	CJ.com class action lawsuit, sued by their affiliates because of "adware" issues. I am not sure if this has been posted here yet if so I apologize for the depulicate post. I would post this in the mainstream forum but this also has to do with "adware" and zango, and the results of this case can have an inpact on all of us. CJ.com ( Commission Junction NOT Consumption Junction) is being sued by their affiliates in a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit started a few months back and has made it through motions to dissmiss and is still on course to go to trial in early 2008. The reason CJ affiliates are sueing CJ.com is because they claim that CJ.com does not enforce it's own TOS when it comes to "adware". Some CJ.com affiliates use companies like ZANGO to make sales and in doing so it steals sales away from other CJ.com affiliates. CJ.com still makes the sale and the only one that loses out is their affiliates. More information about the lawsuit: www.cjclassaction.com Read the complaint, which also explains how zango works in legal terms very well http://www.cjclassaction.com/Carrier...aint_Final.pdf (Page 6, B.) This is the first time affiliates have sued the affiliate program because of "adware", zango being the main one. Depending on how this case goes it could set precedence for future cases where affiliate program fail to protect ALL of their affiliates and allow some to openly use methods that steal from their other affiliates. If you read the complaint, it is stated that CJ.com was well aware that some affiliates used adware and then did very little, to nothing, to stop this. Basically they just looked the other way because at the end of the day they didn't lose any sales, the sales were redistributed among their affiliates. __________________ Do you own a Membership Site? Want to add Free Live Scheduled Nude Webcam shows to your member's area for FREE + Make 35% of all upsells? Check out ->MemberCams.com ICQ: 86364801

11-14-2007, 12:45 AM	#2 (permalink)
Wiggles Is Aga really Little Buddha? Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Canda Posts: 10,830 Points: 85	good, teach them a lessen, then maybe more will catch on and no longer ignore zango __________________ CLICK THE BANNER FOR $75 PER SIGNUP!!!

11-14-2007, 01:03 AM	#5 (permalink)
will76 Im addicted to Netpond Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 410 Points: 2,055	How about this.... Think about those COMPANIES that straight up have been using Zango, you know Adult Friend Finder, Sex Search, Sex Bank Roll. IMO it is only logical that what they are doing is 10x worse then what CJ.com did. So if CJ.com can be sued and the case was not dismissed and is currently heading to trial, then a case against AFF should be a slam dunk. Think about it. AFF openly admitted to using Zango on public forums like GFY. Lars' made several post on behalf of the company. One of his posts, which he said their attorny prepaired, acknowledged that they do it and that there is a problem.... the famous " adware colusions". I would fire that attorney lol. They said they were " working to find a solution". Months later Lars posts that they had stopped because it was no longer profitable to them. Now they are back at it again using zango. So a company like AFF uses zango to target their own domains, and then redirects the affiliate's traffic from site A to site B, where if the surfer signs up on Site B the affiliate does not get credit for the sale. This is much worse than what CJ.com is being sued for. CJ.com is basically being sued for not taking action to prevent the bad act from happening. AFF the company, was the ones who where doing the bad act to their own affiliates. AFF and friends are prime targets for a class action if any of their affiliates want to step up and hold them accountable. __________________ Do you own a Membership Site? Want to add Free Live Scheduled Nude Webcam shows to your member's area for FREE + Make 35% of all upsells? Check out ->MemberCams.com ICQ: 86364801

11-14-2007, 01:11 AM	#6 (permalink)
Comrade Want SE traffic?PM me to trade hardlinks Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 706 Points: 2,875	Interesting to see how this pans out, but won't this take years to come to a conclusion? These lawsuits are more about who has more cash to blow on lawyers rather than merit. __________________ I'm at 1:340 with this site. Promote now to make bank! Please don't click here!

11-14-2007, 03:18 AM	#8 (permalink)
dekaz graffiti <3 Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: across the street Posts: 1,153 Points: 80	I quit using CJ ever since they took a few thousands away from me. The worst trial and error ever. __________________ I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me

11-14-2007, 12:53 AM	#3 (permalink)
glowlite AZ-IN, USA Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 2,000 Points: 5	CJ's tricks are certainly not new will76, I stopped using them long ago. I hope they get everything coming to them. That will set a precedent that can be applied to other scum programs and scum advertisers/sponsors and scum promoters/affiliates. Thanks for sharing.

11-14-2007, 12:55 AM	#4 (permalink)
glowlite AZ-IN, USA Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 2,000 Points: 5	Just think how a "win" in this suit will pull the rug from under a multitude of adult sponsors.

11-14-2007, 01:36 AM	#7 (permalink)
glowlite AZ-IN, USA Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 2,000 Points: 5	I'm guessing that the 10's of 1000's of mainstream affiliates collectively have ample funds for legal fees. And our (US) legal system has been embracing the urgency required by cyber business the past couple years. So no Comrade, I don't think it will drag out for years. And yes, I think there is ample funding for legal costs available.

11-14-2007, 03:27 AM	#9 (permalink)
Head Boy Net Baron Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: England Posts: 45,095 Points: 6,356	That's great news. All those zango installs will be affecting us with other sponsors - it's not just CJ that Zango targets. __________________ Baronets is the new name for my domain management services. Porn synonyms - Clitoris added today.

11-14-2007, 09:01 AM	#12 (permalink)
Hentaikid Yep, I made this animation myself Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 9,551 Points: 520	I signed up, but I had trouble signing up for programs that required you to have sales before they'd accept you, something of a catch 22. Never got anything and my account was suspended for inactivity because they told me they'd suspend it so I wasn't going to start promoting an account that could be suspended at any moment, lol.

11-14-2007, 12:03 PM	#15 (permalink)
Hentaikid Yep, I made this animation myself Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 9,551 Points: 520	Probably not, judging from past precedent

11-14-2007, 01:59 PM	#19 (permalink)
larrymax Im starting to love this place and the points dont matter lol Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 21 Points: 105	How could they not know that this would eventually bite them in the ass? You have to APPLY to become a merchant and get APPROVED so it may be hard for them to claim that they did not know. __________________ PeeksCash Live Nude Chat Paying Webmasters On Time since 1999. Need Help? Have Questions?

11-14-2007, 04:50 PM	#20 (permalink)
Dupont TCG makes the world go round Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 27,397 Points: 4,246	Wonder how this pans out.. I hope they pay big __________________

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