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Taptica says will “aggressively defend” a US legal complaint filed against it by Uber

Published: 08:06 11 Jun 2019 BST

Legal compaint
Based on the information available to the company to date, Taptica said the claims “appear to be without merit”

Taptica International Ltd (LON:TAP) has said it will “aggressively defend” a complaint filed against it in a California court by ride-hailing app firm Uber Technologies Inc., as the UK group gets caught up in the US-listed ride-hailing app firm’s long-running ad-fraud case.

In a brief statement, the AIM-listed brand advertising technologies and performance-based mobile marketing said the complaint, filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco, against Taptica Ltd. and Taptica, Inc., four unaffiliated companies and numerous - up to a further 100 other companies - alleges fraudulent concealment, negligence and unfair competition.

READ: Taptica creates dedicated team to focus on video advertising innovations

Based on the information available to the company to date, the group added that the claims “appear to be without merit”.

In a note to clients, analysts at ‘house’ broker finnCap pointed out: “Taptica subsidiaries and many programmatic adtech peers have now become embroiled in the long-running Uber ad-fraud case over in the US.

“In late 2017, the US ridesharing giant sued its own ad agency, UK-based Fetch (now part of Dentsu Aegis) for US$40m, claiming millions of US$ it spent on programmatic ads were wasted as the adtech companies it employed were simply claiming payment for acquired users who downloaded its app organically (ie not through clicking on an ad).

“For its part, Fetch pointed out that it had built Uber’s business through mobile advertising and early last year it counter-sued for US$20m in unpaid invoices, highlighting Uber’s unscrupulous business practices (calling it a “faithless business partner”).

The analysts added: “Uber voluntarily dismissed its case but now seems to have extended the complaint to the numerous networks which Fetch used to place these ads.

“Clearly Taptica similarly feels the claim is without merit and will defend itself.”

Taptica, which uses technology based on AI and machine learning at a large scale to enable data-driven mobile targeting and user acquisition, recently merged with RhythmOne – formerly known as Blinkx, the digital ad specialist spun out from Autonomy in the noughties.

The enlarged company operates under the Taptica name and is run by Ofer Druker, previously the head of Taptica’s US business.

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