Terran Corporation

Dear Mr. [redacted]  It has come to my attention that your account with Commission Junction LLC (“CJ”) was recently deactivated on April 4, 2016.   CJ maintains its stance that your account was rightfully terminated pursuant to the CJ Publisher Service Agreement (“PSA”), which you...

agreed to when you created your free CJ publisher account on October 10, 2015.   Per Section 6, Term, Termination, Deactivation and Notices, CJ may terminate any publisher account for any reason, in “CJ’s sole discretion”, by providing the publisher with at least 15 days’ notice of termination.  Because of concerns regarding the legitimacy of traffic and transactions your site was generating, CJ’s Network Quality team (“NQ”) investigated your account.  Despite these concerns, NQ decided to approve and payout the commissions you earned; however, NQ determined that your account should be terminated.  Pursuant to Section 6 of the PSA, CJ provided you with notice of termination on March 20, 2016, and 15 days later, your account was rightfully terminated.   Ultimately, your account was rightfully terminated pursuant to the terms of the PSA.  You are directed to immediately refrain from filing a court claim or pursuing any other legal action, as CJ has acted within its contractual rights under the PSA.  CJ reserves all its rights in this matter.  Nothing in this response is intended to waive CJ’s rights, all of which are expressly reserved.     My best,   [redacted] Counsel & Manager of Legal Affairs

Complaint: 11602443
I am rejecting this response because:
CJ SAID - “Under the PSA, Section 1(d)(iii), Infringement, “none of your promotional activities may infringe an Advertiser’s proprietary rights (including but not limited to trademark rights).”  NQ found that you were bidding on the Advertiser’s trademark in the search box which is in direct violation of Section 1(d)(iii).  Further, under the PSA, Section 1(d)(ii) Non-Bona Fide Transactions, “you shall not cause any Transactions to be made that are not in good faith, including, but not limited to, using any device, program, robot, Iframes, or hidden frames,” which you violated by failing to accurately describe your promotional method and by Iframing the Advertiser’s website”. Also, under Section 4(e), No Challenge to CJ’s/Advertiser’s Proprietary Rights, “you acknowledge that you obtain no proprietary rights in your Advertisers’ proprietary rights, and agree not to challenge such Advertiser’s proprietary rights;” however, NQ discovered that you were bidding on Monster.com’s trademark which is a direct violation on the Advertiser’s proprietary rights.  Thus, CJ rightfully terminated your CJ Publisher account for your breach of PSA. THE ABOVE STATEMENTS ARE NOT ACCURATE. WHEN I JOINED MONSTER AFFILIATE PROGRAM THEIR RULES ON BIDDING WAS NOT TO OUTBID MONSTER ON ANY PROTECTED TRADEMARK KEYWORDS AND I WAS NOT INFORMED OF ANY CHANGE TO THAT POLICY.  ALL TRANSACTIONS WERE DONE IN GOOD FAITH. I DID NOT USE FRAMES OR IFRAMES AND MY SITE CLEARLY STATED I WAS AN AFFILIATE PARTNER. I NEVER USED THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE. I DESCRIBED MY PROMOTIONAL METHODS TO NQ BUT THEY DID NOT ACCEPT THEM. THEY WERE CERTAIN I WAS USING THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE OR SOMEOTHER UNAPPROVED TECHNIQUE. THE ATTACHED SCREENSHOT SHOWS jobs-on-monster.com BIDDING ON MONSTER.COM KEYWORD ON BING AND YAHOO SEARCH ENGINES. THIS IS THE EXACT SAME METHOD AND LINKS I USED YET I WAS TERMINATED AND THIS SITE HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO CONTINUE FOR MONTHS. THAT IS WHY I FEEL I’M BEING DISCIMATED AGAINST.
Regards,
J[redacted]

On August
27, 2015, Commission Junction, Inc., a Conversant Company (“CJ”), informed you that
your publisher account is under investigation for potentially fraudulent
activity.  CJ maintains its stance that
your August commission was rightfully withheld pursuant to the CJ...

Publisher
Services Agreement (the “PSA”), which you agreed to when you created your free
CJ publisher account on April 15, 2013.  Responding
to allegations from you advertiser, the CJ Network Quality team is currently investigating
your account for possible fraudulent traffic and are awaiting a quality check
report from your advertiser regarding this traffic.
 
Under PSA
Section 2(b), Use of Links, a publisher represents and warrants that it uses
“ethical and legal business practices” and will “comply with the Advertisers’
Program Terms” and the PSA.  Further, CJ
must review and approve all publisher promotional activities, and the CJ Network
Quality team has the right to deactivate or terminate a publisher’s account for
“any suspected fraudulent, abusive or otherwise illegal content or activity.” Per
PSA Section 6(a), Term, CJ has the right to withhold Payouts while a
publisher’s account is under investigation. 
Further, under PSA Section 1(d)(ii), Non-Bona Fide Transactions, a
publisher “shall not earn Payouts for non-bona fide Transactions.”  Therefore, while this investigation is
underway, CJ has the right to suspend your account and withhold any payment that
may be a result of fraudulent activity. 
 
The CJ
Network Quality team will inform you of its decision once the investigation is
complete.  If CJ deems that your promotional
activities are inappropriate and a material breach of the PSA, your account
will be terminated, and your payment will be returned to your advertiser. If
the investigation and quality check find no fraudulent activity, the August
payout will be included in the September payout, including whatever else has
been locked and closed since the August payout.
 
Sincerely,
 
N[redacted]
Counsel
& Manager of Legal Affairs

I accept. Please keep in mind that a Cj employee chose to give me a second chance and instructed me to open a new account. In agreement to heavy monitoring I am using Google ads / Adwords for promotions. I have disclosed this in the description of the website. I was given a second chance through ticket number 16[redacted]-00[redacted]1. Further details are in that ticket unless you need them here.