Ripple Labs and its leader, Brad Garlinghouse, have filed a lawsuit against YouTube for making video hosting an “accomplice” of repeated fraudulent XRP distributions.
Ripple Labs filed a lawsuit against video hosting in the Northern District of California on April 21. Ripple Labs points to YouTube’s inability to stop scammers and “false XRP representatives,” claiming damages for it.
The company’s blog said that Ripple Labs and CEO Brad Garlinghouse are taking these actions against YouTube to “encourage the entire industry to take responsibility for their actions.”
At the same time, the plaintiffs point out that the fraudsters “distributing XRP” have already deceived the victims into “millions of XRPs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars."
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The official reasons presented in the lawsuit are (1) violation of the “Lanham Trademark Infringement Act”; (2) violation of California laws and common law; (3) violation of the California "Law on Unfair Competition."
Fraud is based on phishing attacks on legitimate channels of companies located on Youtube video hosting. Viewers of such channels are advised to send “from 5,000 XRP to 1,000,000 XRP” to the defined address and promise a 5-fold profit.
The lawsuit also says that YouTube deliberately profits from the actions of fraudsters, although it could stop them:
“YouTube profits from scammers by knowingly selling paid ads on behalf of scammers who impersonate Ripple and Mr. Garlinghouse. These so-called "video advertising ads" were developed by YouTube and are shown in the top search results along with regular results."
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The plaintiffs claim that the Ripple brand and Brad Garlinghouse’s reputation were irreparably damaged and that such harm was exacerbated by YouTube’s “deliberate inaction”.
The lawsuit from Ripple against YouTube also requires the payment of any compensation and punitive damages that are prescribed by law, as well as the reimbursement of the amounts due to which YouTube was enriched using such advertising.