Nestle Legal Tries to Intimidate “Nestlesa.org” Blog With Demand to Hand Over Domain
This isn’t specifically a Nestle water issue, but those used to dealing with the multinational will no doubt find the story believable.
Only days before the nestlesa.org (ED: updated with correct URL) blog was supposed to be launched, Nestle’s legal department sent a letter to the blog owner threatening legal action if the domain name wasn’t handed over:
What I can now tell you is that Nestlé’s lawyers wrote to us last week threatening legal action over the site and demanding that we hand over the domain name to Nestlé by today, 29 September.
So I’ve been a little distracted from writing this blog and other promotion for International Nestlé-Free Week. Which is surely the point of this being dropped on us with a deadline just days before the official launch of the site. Nestlé was using the pretence that the site was “passing off” as being from the company, yet as it stated its purpose clearly and directed people to Nestlé’s own site, this is absurd and the launch goes ahead using the domain name: http://www.nestlecritics.org/
You can read more about the event here.
The article doesn’t include any scans or even the text of the letter (we’d love to see it), but the aggressiveness of Nestle’s legal department is legendary.
Good corporate neighbor? That hardly seems likely.
Powered by ScribeFire.
5 comments
Just to clarify, it was the original domain name Nestle was demanding. We haven’t had a challenge to the nestlecrtics.org domain yet. They demanded the domain name originally used for the Nestle’s Actions site (nestlesa.org), though they don’t use nestlesa as a domain name themselves. We fear they may put information on there that misleads people into providing sensitive information, just as they hired someone to pose as a campaigner to infiltrate a campaign group in Switzerland to gain sensitive information – see the site for details. We have refused to hand over the domain and will fight this before the authorities if necessary as people visiting it will expect it to be a campaign site. We have changed the domain for the launch to nestlecritics.org to try to keep the focus on the information on the site.
I was listening to “On the Media” this morning on my local NPR station. They were talking about the copyright risks for bloggers. Nestle’s action came to mind.
Here’s the information from the website, and the link to the article’s podcast: http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/10/03/06
The Calculated Risk of Blogging
October 03, 2008
Every time bloggers hit publish they risk being sued for copyright infringement, invasion of privacy or defamation. While the risk seems small, groups like the Media Bloggers Association say frivolous lawsuits are chilling free speech in the blogosphere. So MBA founder Robert Cox has helped start insurance for bloggers in an attempt to protect against costly litigation.
Catherine: Thanks for the informative comment.
I’m not too concerned about losing a lawsuit (My journalism background includes media law work), but the real goal for a company like Nestle – at least in the case of the Nestlesa.org domain – would be the chilling effect of a threatened lawsuit.
Still, whatever a company like Nestle might achieve by shutting down a blog would be a blip in the face of the negative publicity, and if it’s one thing that Nestle doesn’t need more of, it’s bad PR.
I think Nestlé’s efforts have back fired and brought more traffic to the site. There is, of course, also the issue of Nestlé’s less than honest response to the melamine contamination in China when it claimed ‘no melamine found’ in its products, when a milk product was on the ‘contaminated’ risk. It is now trying the line that control levels are too strict after authorities in Taiwan and South Korea have ordered recalls. See:
http://www.nestlecritics.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=1
It would be great to have more information about the US water concerns on the site.
Mike: Glad to hear your site launched, and has enjoyed good traffic. I do plan to post something on the site, but time is always an issue.
I’m about to post Part II of my “The Top Six Reasons Why Small Towns Can’t Trust Nestle Waters” article; perhaps that would be fodder for your site.
Good luck!