“We have settled the dispute amicably,” says Net Gain SEO Managing Partner; Vetta Spa founder says settlement ‘not close’ to $4 million initially sought
A 2022 lawsuit against Oro-Medonte-based Vetta Spa has been settled out of court for more than $4 million.
The settlement amount is confidential.
“We have settled the dispute amicably for an undisclosed amount,” said Drew Dekker, managing partner of Net Gain SEO Inc. Dekker added that he was “satisfied with the amount” and “looked forward to moving forward.”
Eric Harkonen, founder and president of Vetta Spa, echoed Dekker’s sentiment.
“We talked about it, we went through a legal discussion and we realized that this is not as big of a deal as it was, but we’re going to resolve it and move forward,” Harkonen said.
While Harkonen could not disclose the figure for the settlement, he said it was “nowhere near” the $4 million originally sought.
As previously reported in January 2023 by OrilliaMatters, Net Gain SEO Inc. filed a statement of claim against Vetta Spa and Harkonen for more than $4 million for breach of contract, “damages for unjust enrichment and breach of its security system and theft of intellectual property.” on July 7, 2022 .
Net Gain, which provides search engine optimization and web development services, claimed that on or about March 1, 2019, Harkonen, on behalf of Vetta, agreed to retain Net Gain to provide web marketing services and digital as Vetta prepared to open her spa. facility, located on Line 3 North in the township of Oro-Medonte, about 20 minutes northeast of Barrie.
The complaint said that under the agreement, Vetta would pay net profit of $6,000 per month over a 10-month period, for a total of $60,000, for pre-operation advertisements, and $8,000 per month for services of continuous online advertising over a three-year period. after the start of Vetta operations.
The statement said that when COVID-19 began, there were subsequent construction delays, which extended Net Gain’s service timelines.
The claim said Vetta asked Net Gain in September 2020 that there be a reduction in monthly amounts to help with cash flow.
It was alleged that Vetta, Harkonen and Net Gain verbally agreed that Net Gain would temporarily reduce its monthly bill to $1,500 until Vetta could obtain more financing or improve its cash flow after the start of operations.
The claim also stated that Vetta would retain Net Gain’s services for post-opening operations at a cost of $6,000 per month.
The claim said that around mid-October 2021, “it became apparent to Net Gain that Vetta was having significant problems paying its reduced invoices in a timely manner.”
One example given was that Vetta was allegedly over 80 days past due on unpaid invoices and had only made a small payment.
The claim said Net Gain sent numerous emails throughout 2021 expressing concern about the lack of payments, until Harkonen responded to an email sent on or around December 30, in which Vetta’s president allegedly “ he simply informed Net Gain that he did. he had no time to devote to his concerns and that the construction issues associated with the Vetta took priority.”
Regarding the security breach portion of the statement of claim, Net Gain alleged that Vetta had previously asked on at least three occasions where the passwords to its social media sites were located.
The claim said that on January 5, 2022, Net Gain noticed unusual activity in the passwords of Vetta’s social media accounts. At the time, Net Gain believed that Vetta was changing the passwords in order to prevent it from accessing the accounts without having to pay for the benefit of the same. Net Gain said it immediately changed all passwords.
The claim said that on or about April 5, 2022, Net Gain received an email from Harkonen stating that Vetta’s website had been “moved to another server.” Net Gain understood this to mean that Vetta had “unlawfully accessed” Net Gain’s server where the website was hosted and copied the files, content and intellectual property, and that Vetta, or an agent of Vetta , “obtained illegitimate access” to Net Gain’s servers in order to benefit from products and services for which he did not pay.
The complaint said Net Gain hired IT professionals and determined there were numerous attempts by an outside party to access Net Gain’s servers.
In its 22-page statement of claim, Net Gain alleged that “the account balance currently past due and outstanding is $425,943.60 excluding HST.”
Vetta Spa previously settled two lawsuits with Leading Edge Earthworks out of court. The settlement amounts of these lawsuits are also confidential.
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