Affinity Renews Antitrust Action against GfK MRI

Shuttered media measurement firm Affinity LLC has brought a $20m antitrust action against GfK's magazine audience ratings arm GfK MRI, reiterating its claim that the latter used stolen trade secrets about Affinity's competing product to drive it out of business.

Affinity's former owners Tom Robinson and Marianne Grogan, who brought an initial suit a year ago, say that during acquisition talks with GfK MRI in 2008, they divulged information about their syndicated magazine ad effectiveness research service VISTA, and GfK MRI then broke a nondisclosure agreement by using this information to develop its own product, Starch Syndicated.

They describe GfK MRI's product as a 'carbon copy' of their own service, and claim that this new tool was 'aggressively marketed' to publishers and advertisers in direct competition with VISTA. GfK MRI then developed another new product called Ad Measure, which Robinson and Grogan say was sold 'on the cheap' or at no cost, threatening VISTA's viability.

Earlier this month, a New York District Court dismissed the original lawsuit, stating that Affinity had failed to provide facts to explain why GfK MRI could not have developed a competitor to its own service. However, while Judge Sullivan dismissed the federal antitrust claims, he declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims. As a result, Affinity has now filed the state law claims in New York State Court, accusing GfK MRI of 'decimating a competitor' by engaging in 'anti-competitive conduct and predatory pricing'.

According to the former owners, GfK MRI also engaged in a 'smear campaign' against Affinity, to deceive clients into thinking that Affinity was going bankrupt. In the new action, Affinity's founders say that one of their clients forwarded an e-mail which GfK MRI's former President and CEO Kathi Love had sent to members of an industry trade group, in which she stated that Affinity's service had no paying clients. They believe that this 'campaign' resulted in Affinity clients ditching VISTA, which ultimately led to their company's closure in February 2012.

In the suit, Robinson and Grogan are seeking $20m in damages for breach of the nondisclosure agreement, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, and 'tortious interference with prospective economic advantage'.

GfK MRI is online at www.gfkmri.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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