Depot sues Staples
October
2005 – Delray Beach (FL): Office Depot has filed a lawsuit against
Staples for the alleged improper purchase of online search-engine ads,
in order to poach potential customers.
Depot claims that Staples and
its subsidiary, Quill, tried to lure away customers searching for
Viking Office Products, a Depot subsidiary, by purchasing “key word”
ads from Google. When searching the word “Viking”, the first ad to
appear in the results for the sponsored links was for Staples, Depot
states.
The company asserts that Staples is targeting customers because it is closing the Viking brand in the US.
Staples EVP for business delivery, Brian Light, described the suit as “totally without merit”.