The scene of the crime

A Colorado District Court jury awarded $4.8 million to NetQuote after ruling that its rival, MostChoice, submitted over 3500 false applications for insurance quotes to its website.

After receiving multiple complaints from insurers that it was filing unqualified leads, NetQuote conducted an investigation and discovered MostChoice had hired a contractor, Brandon Byrd, to submit falls apps to its site. Byrd purportedly worked up to 30 hours a week for over nine months, resulting in a number of agents and brokers cutting ties with NetQuote.

NetQuote filed suit against MostChoice in 2006, requesting half the punitive damages it was ultimately awarded.

Before the jury made its decision, MostChoice attempted to countersue NetQuote for click fraud, alleging NetQuote employees surreptitiously clicked on its ads 25 times from October 2004-August 2005, and 27 times from January 2007-September 2007. The suit was dismissed for lack of evidence.

In its own defense, MostChoice also argued that if it hadn't submitted so many false leads to the NetQuote system, the latter would never have developed its sophisticated lead filtering system.

In total, MostChoice must pay NetQuote $1.6 million in damages and $3.2 million in punitive damages. Byrd himself owes $10,000. (NetQuote apparently only asked for $1 for damages against Byrd, according to SEOmoz.)

In an email to MarketingVOX regarding this article, attorney Ryan L. Isenberg of Isenberg & Hewitt, respresenting MostChoice, wrote (sic):

I am writing to inform you that no money has been "forked over," there is a pending federal lawsuit that was brought by Mostchoice against Netquote for False Advertising with damages currently estimated to be just under $7 Million, plus a pending post trial motion, which if granted would result in either a judgment for Mostchoice, or a new trial, and a settlement conference is scheduled for next week where executives for both parties will attempt to resolve both pending matters.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion and to put whatever slant you want on the facts, but Mostchoice was compelled to inform you that the title has caused others to inquire about whether it has actually paid Netquote, which again it has not.