Bangalore court restrains Bareback Media from publishing defamatory content against Healofy

The City Civil Court at Bangalore has passed a gag order against Bareback Media Private Limited, restraining it from publishing defamatory content against Healofy, an app that gives pregnancy and parenting advice..Healofy claimed that Bareback Media had published false and malicious statements against it in an article titled ‘Healofy defrauds users and VCs with unethical hacking of metrics, stains ecosystem’ on its website, www.entrackr.com. In this background, Healofy sought damages of Rs. 5 crore from Bareback..Healofy was recently taken down from the Google Play Store, owing to certain policy violations. However, it made a comeback last week, after its directors appealed to Google against the ban..The article by Bareback highlights the possible reasons why Healofy was taken down. Among the claims made were that Healofy has been hacking user devices to stage fake growth to its investors and to inflate engagement numbers 7-10 times; that based on fake metrics and unethical tactics, Healofy had raised $8 million Series A round led by China’s top parenting app Babytree and Omidyar Network; and that it has been involved in copyright violations by taking content from competitors..In the plaint filed by Healofy, each of these statements is rebutted. The plaint also states that the authors of the article have made such claims despite admitting to being unaware of the grounds on which Google took down the app..The article has caused loss of business, reduction in users, loss of goodwill, enormous reduction in-app purchases, advertisements, market share and ratings. .After going through the arguments, XII Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge Satisha LP held,.“I am of the humble opinion that the said article is published without there being a basis for the same and plaintiffs have made out prima facie case and balance of convenience also lies in favour of the plaintiffs and irreparable injury will be caused to the plaintiffs, in case order of TI is not granted.”.Therefore, Bareback was restrained from continuing to publish the article. The matter will be taken up next on July 7..Healofy was represented by Senior Advocate Dhyan Chinnappa, who was briefed by a team from Spectrum Legal headed by Partner Chintan Chinnappa and Associates Nishanth Nandagopal and Adit Shah. A team from Anoma Legal comprising Partner Abhinav Singh and Senior Associate Jatinder Randhawa too assisted on the matter..Read the order:.Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, Click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.