Litigation & Threats Policy

“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”  -Voltaire

Are you considering suing, or threatening us with litigation, in hopes of coercing us into a settlement on your terms? If so, the following applies to you:

Philosophy

We understand that CPO may be exposing your unethical and questionably-legal business practices. Other companies like yours have attempted to coerce us with threats, demand letters, and even lawsuits in an attempt to pressure us into removing content from our website. We have never yielded to such bullying and have defeated every legal action brought against us because CPO operates within laws regarding free speech, fair use, and digital communications. If you decide to ignore the law and the U.S. Constitution and pursue a legal action against us anyway, be assured that we will always, without exception, fight back. Our policy is to never accept any settlement that limits our rights or changes the CPO website in any form. To be clear, we never settle under any condition that changes anything about what we do. Threat of legal expense will not influence our decision and we will take any actions available to us to recover fees if you bring a frivolous suit against us. If you are an attorney, and you bring a frivolous suit, we will seek sanctions and appropriate disciplinary actions against you as well.

We are not pragmatic when companies attempt to intimidate us, especially when the tool of choice is vexatious litigation. On this, we stand purely on principle; we will never allow you to suppress our rights, we will not be bullied, we will not be silenced, and we will never back down.

If you bring a suit against us, we will conduct a thorough Discovery process and forward any illegal activities that we uncover to the proper authorities. If we prevail, we will publish everything we learned about your company and its leadership.

Reviews & Ratings

Nearly all threats we receive originate from providers that are dissatisfied with a rating in a review, content of a review, and/or third-party user comments posted to the reviews. All such items are protected speech in the United States of America. Threatening us, even once, in any form may be noted in your review and may affect your rating.

Protections

Case law is on our side in nearly all respects but we are primarily protected from frivolous litigation losses on four fronts: The First Amendment of the United States of America, the Lanham Act, Fair Use and Nominative Fair Use, and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Before threatening or bringing legal action, we advise familiarizing yourself with the laws and precedents which protect online publishers.

Our Provider Fairness Programs

We understand that there are two sides to every story. Instead of threatening us with litigation, try working with CPO to help you resolve your complaints. See this page for more details.

History

Below are the legal actions brought against CPO. We have refrained from listing each company that has informally threatened us; however, we often note such actions in their reviews.

  1. Elitepay Global et al v. Cardpaymentoptions.com et al (2:14-cv-02590) – Dismissed due to deficiencies in Elitepay Global's case filing.
  2. International Payment Services, LLC v. Cardpaymentoptions.com, Inc. et al (2:14-cv-02604) – Round 1, International Payment Services attempts to sue CPO for Trademark Infringement. The court awards Summary Judgment in favor of CPO striking down most of IPS's claims with prejudice.
  3. International Payment Services v. Cardpaymentoptions.com, Inc., et al (0:15-cv-56031) – Round 2, Appeal of Summary Judgment by International Payment Services. Dismissed with prejudice.
  4. International Payment Services et al v. CardPaymentOptions.com et al (1:15-cv-00104) Round 3, International Payment Services attempts to sue CPO for Assault, Libel & Slander. Case dropped due to no legal basis for a continued lawsuit.