RadPad ordered to pay Craigslist $60.5M for illegal scraping, spamming users

Apartment listing service RadPad must pay $60.5 million to Craigslist after it was found liable for illegally scraping the online classified’s apartment listings and spamming its users.

It’s unclear how much of the amount Craigslist will actually receive, since RadPad’s assets are controlled by Insolvency Services Group, a law firm that handles the assets of financially distressed companies. RadPad was sold in January to a Dallas-based tenant-screening service, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

RadPad violated the federal Can-Spam Act for sending 400,000 emails to Craigslist users and infringing on patents owned by Craigslist, according to the ruling. The startup did not object to the judgment but its founder, Jonathan Eppers, told the Business Journal that Craigslist’s lawsuit was unfair.

“The judgement against RadPad is nothing more than theatrics that Craigslist can now use to scare the living hell out of other startup companies that threaten Craigslist’s existence, which is the genesis of this entire case against us,” Eppers, who resigned as CEO in January, told the publication. [LABJ] — Cathaleen Chen