Dive Brief:
- The parent company of recruitment brands like Monster and CareerBuilder refuted claims made by competitor Rocket Resume that it engaged in anticompetitive practices in violation of California and federal laws, according to a Thursday court filing.
- Bold Limited motioned to dismiss the complaint, telling the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern California that Rocket Resume’s lawsuit was “a deficient effort to twist lawful conduct into an antitrust violation.” Rocket Resume failed to allege any monopolization effort or similar conduct that caused any antitrust injury, Bold said.
- Rocket Resume filed the lawsuit in April. It alleged that Bold operated several resume-building brands that were not disclosed on Bold’s website and that Bold controlled more than 80% of the online resume market. Rocket Resume also claimed that Bold paid “inflated prices” to Google search for advertising positions. Bold said Thursday that the lawsuit “fails at every step.”
Dive Insight:
The two sides have a recent history of litigation, Bold noted in its filing. The company wrote that it sued Rocket Resume for alleged copyright infringement in 2022 before agreeing to a settlement. “Now unable to win market share on its own merits, [Rocket Resume] filed this case against BOLD and certain executives,” Bold said.
Bold denied that any of the practices alleged by Rocket Resume were unlawful. Prior precedent in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held that selling similar products under different brand names is not improper, Bold said, while claims that Bold engaged in an ad-bidding strategy via Google Search are insufficient to establish that Rocket Resume suffered antitrust injury.
Additionally, Bold pushed back on claims that it controlled more than 80% of the online resume market. Bold said this part of a set of “conclusory, inconsistent allegations” undermined by Rocket Resume’s acknowledgment that it is easy for new competitors to emerge within the market and that the current universe of competitors could number in the hundreds.
“These shortcomings only underscore [Rocket Resume’s] inability to make out any of the other ingredients it needs to establish ‘durable and sustaining’ monopoly power,” Bold said.
Legal counsel for Rocket Resume did not immediately respond to a request for comment.