Go Daddy Class Action News is Actually Good for the Firm

Case isn’t fresh, just moved closer to Go Daddy headquarters.

CourthouseNews.com is reporting that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Go Daddy for showing pay-per-click ads on registrant’s “coming soon” pages.

This actually isn’t a fresh case and the latest development actually represents a win for Go Daddy.

The case was filed back in 2007 in Arkansas by Barry Crabb and Matthew McBride. The two Texas residents had used computers in Arkansas to register domain names counting mall111.com and suckmydirk.com.

Go Daddy argued that the case ought to be heard in Arizona instead of Arkansas. The court agreed (see order – pdf) and the case was just transferred to Arizona. So the case is actually nothing fresh; it just has a fresh venue. And that venue is more favorable to the domain name registrar.

Register.com faced a similar class action lawsuit regarding ten years ago since it displayed links to its own products on “coming soon” pages. It ended up settling the case. The initial settlement offer was for class members to walk away with $5.00 coupons off Register.com’s services while lawyers pocketed up to $642,500.