Ardis Health, LLC et al. v. Nankivell, SDNY 2011
Nov 17, 2011OUTCOME: Preliminary injunction granted
Plaintiffs were several online marketers whose employee was responsible for their active social media presence. In the course of doing her job, the employee maintained the passwords and other login inf ... ormation for the websites, email accounts, third-party servers, and social media accounts used by the companies. After the employee was terminated, she failed to return certain access information for numerous social media accounts she managed, including Facebook and Twitter accounts. CKVC commenced suit on behalf of the companies in the Southern District of New York and successfully obtained a preliminary injunction compelling the immediate return of the information. In granting the return of this information, federal judge Naomi Reice Buchwald found that plaintiffs satisfied the heavy burden of showing irreparable harm required to obtain the injunction. Judge Buchwald focused on the importance social media for Internet marketers like the plaintiffs: Plaintiffs depend heavily on their online presence to advertise their businesses, which requires the ability to continuously update their profiles and pages and react to online trends. The inability to do so unquestionably has a negative effect on plaintiffs’ reputation and ability to remain competitive, and the magnitude of that effect is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify in monetary terms. Such injury constitutes irreparable harm.