SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Monday dismissed claims against OnlyFans’ parent company and its owner, effectively cutting them loose from a civil lawsuit alleging a conspiracy to blacklist the platform’s competitors and their brand ambassadors.
As XBIZ reported, Adult Performance Artists Guild (APAG) board officers Alana Evans, Kelly Pierce and Ruby originally filed the civil lawsuit in February 2022 against OnlyFans and its owner, as well as Instagram and Facebook’s parent company, Meta. The suit replicates claims from an earlier lawsuit filed on behalf of FanCentro in November 2021, alleging a conspiracy to engage in “tortious interference with contract and intentional interference with prospective business.”
Attorney David Azar of Beverly Hills firm Milberg Coleman Bryson Grossman, who is representing the group as the first three of a class involving all adult performers and content creators, is also one of the lawyers representing FanCentro in its related action against OnlyFans.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup dismissed claims against OnlyFans’ parent companies, Fenix International Ltd. and Fenix Internet LLC, and against owner Radvinsky, following the plaintiffs’ “recent disavowal of allegations concerning wire transfers to bribe senior Meta executives,” legal news site Law360 explained.
Issue of Sanctions for Performer Plaintiffs Remains Unresolved
Last month, OnlyFans and Meta filed motions seeking dismissal of the conspiracy lawsuit, alleging that the discovery process revealed no evidence of a conspiracy.
Fenix International Ltd. also asked District Judge William Alsup to sanction the performers for spreading “frivolous allegations.”
According to legal news site Law360, Fenix’s motion for sanctions alleged that the plaintiffs’ counsel insisted during a hearing that they could present as evidence alleged transactions involving the bank HSBC, and later referred to illicit payments or transfers.
Fenix asserted that during discovery, HSBC confirmed that it did not have records of the alleged wire transfers.
On Monday, Judge Alsup noted, “With jurisdictional discovery in the past, plaintiffs remain unable to articulate what activity or occurrence of the Fenix defendants in the alleged scheme took place in California. In fact, plaintiffs have stepped backwards and withdrawn their bribery allegations altogether. At this point, there are no factual averments tying any conduct by Fenix defendants to California.”
The judge did not address a bid by the Fenix defendants and Meta, which remains a defendant, to “sanction the entertainers,” Law360 reported.
“The companies continue to push for those sanctions, arguing that it’s not enough for the plaintiffs to have dropped assertions of wire transfers to Meta executives,” the report added. “Meta argued last week that dropping those assertions simply confirms the plaintiffs sold the court ‘a bill of goods.’”