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Criteo Says Rival SteelHouse Ran A 'Counterfeit Click Fraud Scheme'
- Business Insider, Wednesday, June 15, 2016 7:28 AM
"Criteo, the France-based ad tech company, filed a lawsuit on Monday that alleges rival firm SteelHouse ran a 'counterfeit click fraud scheme' that led to 'substantial injury and damage' to its business and reputation," according to a report in Business Insider. U.S.-based SteelHouse and Criteo are rivals in the digital advertising space. Criteo is a public company with more than $1 billion in revenue in 2015, while SteelHouse is a private firm. It raised $63.55 million in funding, according to CrunchBase. Both companies place ads by "retargeting," dropping a cookie on a user's browser when they've visited a Web site, usually an ecommerce site. "Criteo alleges in the suit that SteelHouse 'counterfeited clicks to trick e-tailers into attributing sales to SteelHouse that should have been attributed to Criteo, other competitors and partners, or direct traffic.' The suit also claims SteelHouse used the scheme to falsely advertise to customers that it 'consistently outperformed' Criteo in head-to-head comparisons, which led to Criteo losing important business."
