WordPress hosting firm Automattic and its CEO Matthew Mullenweg have been ordered to stop interfering with the business of rival WP Engine.
California District Court judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction [PDF] against Automattic and Mullenweg, finding that plaintiff WP Engine is likely to prevail in its claims.
WP Engine, which hosts websites for customers using the open source WordPress content management system that Mullenweg co-created, came under fire from Mullenweg after his long-running campaign to convince the firm to pay a royalty fee was rebuffed.
Mullenweg, claiming that WP Engine had taken from the open source WordPress community without giving back, went public with his campaign in September. He disparaged WP Engine at events and online, denied WP Engine-hosted sites access to wordpress.org for plugin updates, urged WP Engine customers to look elsewhere for hosting due to a plugin security vulnerability that Automattic disclosed, and took other actions against the firm.
Mullenweg's behavior divided the WordPress community, prompting some to call for him to step down.
Faced with unrest from employees of Automattic and affiliated entities about his course of action, he designed an "alignment offer" – a severance package to encourage those with opposing views to leave. One hundred and fifty-nine workers did so.
WP Engine responded with an antitrust lawsuit in early October. That was followed by a request for a preliminary injunction that Automattic challenged with a California anti-SLAPP claim. WP Engine subsequently amended its complaint in November.
In her order, judge Martínez-Olguín directs Automattic and Mullenweg to cease:
a) blocking, disabling, or interfering with WP Engine's and/or its employees', users', customers', or partners' … access to wordpress.org;
b) interfering with WP Engine's control over, or access to, plugins or extensions (and their respective directory listings) hosted on wordpress.org that were developed, published, or maintained by WP Engine, including those that had been published, developed, or maintained by WP Engine as of September 20, 2024; and
c) interfering with WP Engine's and Related Entities' WordPress installations (i.e., websites built with WordPress software) by using auto-migrate or auto-update commands to delete, overwrite, disable, or modify any WP Engine plugin without the express request by or consent of WP Engine and/or its users, customers, or partners (as applicable).
The second element of the order appears aimed at preventing actions like the forking of a WP Engine-developed plugin.
The judge has also given the defendants 72 hours to remove the list of purported WP Engine customers posted online, to restore WP Engine's access to wordpress.org, and to restore WPEngine's access to and control of its Advanced Custom Fields plugin directory listing on wordpress.org.
WP Engine did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Automattic told The Register: "Today's ruling is a preliminary order designed to maintain the status quo. It was made without the benefit of discovery, our motion to dismiss, or the counterclaims we will be filing against WP Engine shortly. We look forward to prevailing at trial as we continue to protect the open source ecosystem during full-fact discovery and a full review of the merits."
The preliminary injunction is to remain in effect until a judgement is entered following the expected trial. ®