Firm sues following domain seller backs out of transaction
Firm states seller tried to raise the price from $38,000 to $380,000 following learning who was buying.
An Australian business has filed a lawsuit following a domain name deal allegedly fell apart when the seller tried to raise the price tenfold.
Pay.com.au Limited sued (pdf) Dean Adams, the registrant of PayRewards.com, in the District Court for the City and County of Denver on April 17.
The firm claims that Adams agreed to sell the domain name for $38,000, and he initiated a transaction through Escrow.com. Pay.com.au agreed to the transaction on Escrow.com and funded it.
As stated by the complaint, Adams attempted to renegotiate the deal following learning the buyer’s identity. He demanded $380,000 for the domain and stated that the price would increase by 5% each week unless paid.
He also threatened to sell the domain to someone else, as stated by Pay.com.au.
On April 22, the judge granted a temporary restraining order, preventing the domain name from being transferred or deleted. Adams did not appear at the hearing for the temporary restraining order. The lawsuit also names NameBright and its privacy service, which did not object to the order.
Historical Whois records at DomainTools suggest that Adams purchased the domain from HugeDomains in 2022.
Pay.com.au helps businesses earn points and rewards on their payments, hence the firm’s interest in the domain. It owns the matching payrewards.com.au domain.
The firm raised $15 million at a $303 million pre-money valuation in December.
