United Continental sued the man behind Untied.com, which airs grievances from disgruntled customers. (November 28, 2012)
United Continental Holdings has sued a Canadian man who maintains the 15-year-old complaint website Untied.com, which airs complaints from disgruntled United Airlines passengers.
Two suits filed in Canada allege the complaint site violates the airline's copyright, trademarks and privacy of senior airline employees. United says in one of the suits it is not trying to prevent the site's owner, Jeremy Cooperstock, from operating a website where people can express their views about United, but instead is trying to protect its intellectual property, such as its logo.
Cooperstock denies the airlines' allegations and claims the effectiveness of his site is the reason for the lawsuits, which he calls SLAPP suits, standing for "strategic lawsuit against public participation."
"They are trying to shut down my site instead of dealing with their problems," Cooperstock said in a written statement. "If they had put as much effort into improving their service as into these SLAPP-suits, there'd be no reason for the website."
The site claims to have "collected more than 25,000 passenger complaints against United, along with hundreds of postings from mistreated employees."
The lawsuits, filed by United and Continental airlines, was filed Nov. 19 in both the Federal Court of Canada and Superior Court of Quebec.
United Airlines officials did not immediately return a request for comment.
http://www.chicagotribune.com
http://www.united.com
http://www.untied.com
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