Ripple has filed a lawsuit against video-streaming giant YouTube for its alleged complicity in a multiple XRP giveaway scams on the site. In an April 21 announcement, Ripple Labs, along with its CEO Brad Garlinghouse has filed the lawsuit in a federal district court in Northern California.

According to the announcement, the plaintiffs are taking legal action against YouTube to prompt an industry wide-behavior change and set the expectation of accountability. Ripple noted in its announcement that the company’s foundation is built on trust and transparency. The company claims it sees a dire need to protect its consumers around the world, in light of building on these principles.

Per the filing, the plaintiff claimed YouTube has violated three major laws. These includes the Lanham Act for Trademark Infringement, California’s Statutory and Common Law Right of Publicity, and California’s Unfair Competition Law. The plaintiffs are therefore calling for the award of any statutory, compensatory and punitive damages. They are also calling for a restitution of any enrichment YouTube has received from these scams.

Through the lawsuit, Ripple is calling on YouTube to first of all be more aggressive and proactive in identifying these scams before they are posted. Ripple is also calling on YouTube to remove these scams as quickly as possible once they are identified. Ripple also urged the video-streaming giant not to profit from these scams.

According to the filing, the scammers employed email spear-phishing attack to get hold of YouTube channels from legitimate content creators. After that, these attackers strip the creator’s YouTube channel(s) of its content and transform it into a channel that impersonates that of Ripple or its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse.

The plaintiff said YouTube’s lack of cooperation has limited its ability to verify whether each instance of the several scams occurred in precisely the same manner. However, the plaintiff claimed its own investigations revealed that each instance of the scam is substantially similar to all the others. It was also stated in the filing that YouTube knowingly profits from the actions of these bad actors, though they could have stopped them.

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