An angry crypto enthusiast, David Suski, has filed a lawsuit against Coinbase Global Inc. seeking $5million in damages. The plaintiff allegedly said that he was deceived into trading $100 of Dogecoin for an entry into a $1.2 million sweepstakes offer on Coinbase.
The document claims that free of charge entry was possible into the Sweepstakes. However, Coinbase did not disclose that fact for financial gains. Suski says he wouldn’t have paid this if Coinbase had clearly disclosed there was another way to enter the contest. Namely by mailing in a 3×5 index card with the participant’s name, address, and birthday.
What is Sweepstakes?
Sweepstakes is a contest where prizes are given out through a lottery system to users of Coinbase’s products or services. The Sweepstakes that the plaintiff had issues with took place on Jun. 3 and involved prizes worth $1.2 million in Dogecoin. The contest aimed to incentivize Dogecoin trading in the days following its Coinbase Pro listing.
Coinbase began promoting Dogecoin Sweepstakes worth $1.2 million through an advertisement campaign targeted at its users through emails and across its website and mobile app. In the promotions, Coinbase asked users to trade at least $100 or more in Dogecoin between 3 Jun. and 10 Jun. 2021.
The plaintiff’s lawyer alleges that the campaign was misleading since the rules allowed anyone to take part free of cost. The rule was not disclosed upfront and instead only mentioned under a separate “rules and details” section.
He noted in his suit that the marketing firm hired by Coinbase used “false and misleading” tactics to disguise the free-entry option. The dogecoin enthusiast in his lawsuit held that a link to the sweepstake rules was published in the small, faint text.
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However, Coinbase is yet to comment on the issue.
