WILMINGTON — A Delaware Chancery Court on Monday consolidated three stockholder lawsuits aiming to hold Visa liable for the alleged monetization of user-uploaded CSAM content posted to MindGeek tube sites.
Lawyers for three Visa investors, including a police union in Hollywood, Florida, requested the consolidation of their separate suits filed between Jan. 19 and March 13.
In his consolidation order, Delaware’s Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster wrote that the suits have the potential “to involve numerous common questions of fact and law” and said the decision aimed to “avoid needless costs or delay in probing Visa's dealings with MindGeek SARL and affiliates that operate websites delivering free online pornography,” legal news site Law 360 reported.
All three plaintiffs allege that Visa did not allow them access to its records in order to probe the issue.
“As detailed in the demand, there are serious and facially credible allegations that Visa's officers and directors failed to perform adequate due diligence, and either knew or should have known of, yet continued to facilitate, MindGeek's potentially criminal activity involving child pornography,” lawyers for the Operating Engineers Construction Industry and Miscellaneous Pension Fund argued.
Attorneys for the Hollywood Police Officers’ Retirement System claimed they have “several reasons to suspect wrongdoing, including payment vendor PayPal’s withdrawal from servicing the business while Visa continued, as well as complaints and news reports,” Law 360 reported.
A New ‘Operation Chokepoint’
As XBIZ reported, in August 2022 Visa announced that it would suspend card acceptance for MindGeek’s ad network, TrafficJunky, until further notice. The announcement followed media pressure from celebrity investor Bill Ackman, conservative attorney Michael Bowe and religiously inspired anti-porn activist Laila Mickelwait.
Visa announced its decision through a letter from CEO Alfred F. Kelly Jr., who was personally targeted as liable by Ackman, Mickelwait and Bowe during an appearance on the CNBC financial news show “Squawk Box.”
During a lengthy tirade against MindGeek, Ackman urged Kelly to make Visa the ultimate arbiter of what is permitted online, without waiting for the outcome of pending civil litigation regarding user-uploaded content.
Kelly acknowledged, “It is not customary for an executive to weigh in on legal matters in advance of a final ruling,” but then carved a sentimental exception by explaining, “This situation, however, is different, and as CEO — and a father and grandfather — I feel compelled to speak out.”
Anti-porn activist groups celebrated Visa and Kelly's decision as a victory for their new “operation chokepoint,” an attempt to use courts and the media to pressure private financial companies and internet platforms to decide what online content can and cannot be shared.