GoDaddy over troubled partnership — SiteLock sues

Security firm claims GoDaddy didn’t pay what it owes.

Website security firm SiteLock has sued domain name registrar and hosting firm GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) for breach of contract and trademark claims.

The two firms signed a reseller agreement in 2013 under which GoDaddy could sell SiteLock’s website security services. SiteLock charged per subscription and GoDaddy could mark up the price still much it wanted so long as it met a minimum retail price. For example, SiteLock charged GoDaddy $5 per client for a basic annual site scan service. GoDaddy could sell it for $12 or more per year and keep the difference.

SiteLock claims that GoDaddy only paid it when a client paid for and activated the service but did not pay if a client paid for the service but did not activate it. It argues that GoDaddy ought to have paid even when a client failed to activate the service. It also alleges that GoDaddy did not provide required reporting in an effort to obscure this.

The relationship soured further following GoDaddy bought SiteLock competitor Sucuri in 2017. GoDaddy transitioned clients to Securi and forwarded pages on its site that used to be for SiteLock products to pages promoting Securi. As stated by the lawsuit, links on GoDaddy for people to sign up for SiteLock instead forwarded to pages regarding Securi.

SiteLock is owned by Abry Partners, the same private equity firm that owns top level domain firm Donuts.

The full lawsuit is here.