MENLO PARK, Calif. — International law firm Kirkland & Ellis will be defending Meta, Facebook and Instagram in the proposed class action lawsuit alleging the platforms conspired with OnlyFans’ owner to shadowban competitors and their exclusive talent.
Kirkland & Ellis litigation partners K. Winn Allen and Devin Anderson in Washington, D.C., and Michael Esser in the San Francisco Bay Area, are defending the social media giants, news site Law.com reported.
Meta, the corporate successor to Facebook, was named in February in a proposed class action suit filed by three adult performers and APAG board members: Alana Evans, Ruby and Kelly Pierce. The suit claims that Meta “colluded with content subscription service OnlyFans to systematically hide and delete social media posts from certain adult entertainers,” Law.com reported.
The law firm Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman is representing Evans, Ruby and Pierce. Senior U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is overseeing the case.
As XBIZ reported, the same law firm filed similar lawsuits on behalf of JustFor.fans in February and FanCentro in November 2021.
All three lawsuits allege that OnlyFans’ owner Leonid Radvinsky as well as its U.S. billing company, Fenix Internet LLC, engaged in “tortious interference with contract and intentional interference with prospective business.”
According to the lawsuits, Radvinsky “engaged in a scheme to cause competitors of OnlyFans” to be “blacklisted” by social media platforms, for the purpose of “interfering with [the competitors’] business and reducing competition with OnlyFans.”
Kirkland & Ellis is no stranger to defending Meta’s platforms, including current litigation against Facebook brought by Donald Trump over his indefinite ban following the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Main Image: Alana Evans.
