Airline Sued Site Owner Claiming Harassment

A 20-year-old dispute between United Airlines and the owner of a website critical of the carrier has gone to court in Quebec, Canada.

UAL is seeking an injunction against Jeremy Cooperstock that would force the self-proclaimed passenger rights advocate to take contact information for its employees down from the website Untied.com. The airlines says the site has resulted in ongoing harassment of its employees by unhappy passengers.

Cooperstock claims that the carrier is attempting to silence his criticism of the airline, according to a report in The Star newspaper.

Jeff Wittig, an attorney for the airline testified in Quebec Superior Court that he was unable to do his job after being swamped with calls and emails after his contact information was posted on the website. Wittig said the airline acknowledges that Cooperstock has a right to have the website, and the airline said in a statement that the lawsuit is only to "prevent Mr. Cooperstock from misdirecting customers to contact individuals who cannot assist them.”

But Cooperstock, an associate engineering professor at McGill University, said that the airline's goal is to squelch criticism. The airline has also filed a copyright infringement suit against him in federal court over use of a logo similar in design to United's.

Cooperstock set up the website in 1997 a year after he had complained to the airline about a damaged suit and other minor incidents during a trip to Japan. He said that the airline had accepted a proposal he made in 2014 to keep the website using only the names and contact information of customer service and legal personnel, but had rejected his request for "reasonable" compensation for dragging the case out. The airline offered $1.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.united.com, www.untied.com