3TAPS, INC.'S ANSWER AND COUNTERCLAIM Case No. CV-12 ...

12345678910111213innovation and competition in the Relevant Markets.169. craigslist’s Terms of Use specifically prohibit making “available any program,application or service . . . that enables or provides access to, use of, operation of or interoperationwith craigslist.” This provision gives craigslist carte blanche to file suit against any innovatorattempting to create an indexing or search tool that is interoperable with craigslist. It also preventsusers from using third-party search and interaction tools in their listings that may be useful to theother users with whom they communicate.170. There is no legitimate business justification for this provision. Indeed, interoperableprograms or applications would enhance the craigslist user experience, at no cost to craigslist. Butcraigslist knows that innovation in indexing or searching of craigslist’s content would pave the wayfor innovators to challenge craigslist’s dominance in the Relevant Markets.171. Thus, craigslist imposes this term barring access to interoperable applications tostifle such innovation and prevent the emergence of competitors in the Relevant Markets.1415IV.“GHOSTING” AND OTHER DIRTY TRICKS172. Another component of craigslist’s overall scheme is “ghosting,” which is craigslist’s16171819202122232425262728practice of refusing to make visible posts or transmit messages that it believes are linked to itscompetitors, but falsely informing users who upload posts to craigslist from third-party competitorsites that such content actually has been made visible. In fact, the user receives a confirmation andcan view his or her own post, but the post is “ghosted” from anyone else on craigslist.173. For example, a craigslist competitor, such as AirBnB, may provide a user with theoption to simultaneously upload posts to both the competitor’s site and to craigslist. The user postscontent on AirBnB, and the AirBnB service then re-uploads the content to craigslist for the user.This saves the user time and allows the user to target as many potential readers as possible. Undersuch circumstances, craigslist might refuse to make the post visible to other users because ofAirBnB’s involvement, while providing the user with a false confirmation that his post has beenuploaded for other users to see on craigslist.174. “Ghosting” is an anticompetitive mechanism that craigslist employs to discourageusing competitive offerings for onboarding and to prevent competitors from gaining traction.3TAPS’ ANSWER AND COUNTERCLAIM61CASE NO.: 12-CV-3816-CRB