An AnywhereCommerce Suit Alleges Interference And Theft of Trade Secrets by Ingenico

In a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Atlanta, mobile point-of-sale specialist AnywhereCommerce Inc. claims Ingenico Group SA interfered with its contracts and business relationships and violated its trade secrets.

The case, filed Dec. 20 in the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division, alleges that Paris-based Ingenico and its U.S. units interfered with AnywhereCommerce’s relationship with First Data Corp. Specifically, Fresno, Calif.-based AnywhereCommerce claims that a 2015 bid to supply mPOS equipment to First Data was thwarted because Ingenico “began bundling and discounting products and services to unfairly inflate its profits and shut out competition from AnywhereCommerce and similar others in the mPOS space, generally, and as a mPOS supplier for First data, specifically,” the complaint alleges.

The lawsuit also alleges that Ingenico improperly acquired trade secrets from BBPOS, a Hong Kong-based POS-equipment maker that collaborated with AnywhereCommerce. Anywhere Commerce’s license agreement with BBPOS enabled it to sub-license the technology, which it did in a deal with Roam, an mPOS provider that Ingenico took control of in 2012, having made an initial investment in 2009.

AnywhereCommerce claims that Ingenico then installed an executive “for the illegal purpose of improperly accessing and stealing Roam’s technology and trade secrets, including BBPOS’s designs and trade secrets related to the products it was making for Roam.”

In addition to it its legal costs, AnywhereCommerce seeks damages in excess of $75,000.

An Ingenico representative was not immediately available for comment.