New Delhi: From alleged corporate espionage and poaching of a former employee, to approaching its brand ambassador, influencer CarryMinati, with a “strategic” counteroffer, the Delhi High Court is set to hear a feud between gaming platforms WinZO and Zupee.
The saga allegedly began in October 2024, when several WinZO employees were reportedly approached by market research agencies on LinkedIn to participate in “research exercises”, and offered compensation for their involvement. These messages sought their insights into India’s “real money gaming” sector. However, WinZO alleges that these messages were targeted at gathering its trade secrets and confidential information about its operations and strategies.
In a statement shared with ThePrint, Zupee said that it categorically denies all allegations made by WinZo. It points out that the high court, in its order, has noted Zupee’s statement that it neither possesses nor seeks any confidential information related to WinZo.
WinZO filed a suit on 16 November against four agencies—Data Empiric, Nextyn Advisory, Futureminds Consulting and AlphaSights—as well as Cashgrail, the company that owns Zupee.
According to the suit, seen by ThePrint, while the agencies did not explicitly reveal the client behind the research, WinZO “firmly believes” that Zupee orchestrated the scheme by using third-party agencies.
WinZO said Zupee had “deliberately” engaged in this conduct employing third-party agencies “to induce breaches of employee confidentiality obligations and to unlawfully extract trade secrets”.
It demanded that the four agencies and Zupee be restrained from unlawfully attempting to procure WinZO’s trade secrets and confidential information.
On 20 November, Justice Amit Bansal issued notice on the suit, while Zupee’s lawyers denied all allegations.
Senior counsel Amit Sibal, appearing on behalf of Zupee, told the court that the company does not have any confidential information about WinZO and that neither does Zupee seek any such confidential information.
He told the court that Zupee has never approached any WinZO employee to seek confidential information and that it does not intend to use any market research agency to gather WinZO’s trade secrets.
A WinZO spokesperson said in a statement that the company will “pursue and expose anyone who threatens the integrity of our business”.
Claiming that the suit is not just about WinZO, but about defending the principles that drive progress and entrepreneurship, the statement said, “Innovation is the lifeblood of the startup ecosystem, and we refuse to stand idle while unscrupulous elements and competitors attempt to undermine it with deceitful tactics.”
“This is a call to arms on behalf of every entrepreneur, especially early-stage innovators who don’t have enough resources to fight back. Through this stand, we are sending a loud and clear message: Unethical behavior should have no place in our ecosystem, and those who engage in it will face the consequences,” the statement added.
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Former employees and CarryMinati
The suit claims the LinkedIn messages targeting WinZO’s employees weren’t aimed at general industry-related questions but sought “trade secrets and commercially sensitive and confidential information about WinZO’s business operations, strategy, and game designs from the targeted employees”.
In its suit, WinZO alleges that Zupee has “historically and continues to engage in tortious interference by employing third parties to breach confidentiality and extract trade secrets, undermining its competitive position”.
It further adds that Zupee also hired a former WinZO in-house legal counsel who, it claims, had intimate knowledge of WinZO’s strategic business plans and confidential data.
The suit claims WinZO “reasonably apprehends that Zupee strategically poached” this former employee “with the intent of exploiting the sensitive information he had access to during his tenure”.
WinZO has told the court that this former employee was involved in its collaboration with social media influencer CarryMinati, a YouTuber and rapper named Ajey Nagar.
WinZO claims to have been the first real money skill gaming company to establish an exclusive brand ambassador relationship with CarryMinati and had been renewing this contract annually since 2021.
However, it alleges that in April 2024, soon after the employee resigned, Zupee “made a strategic and aggressive move” to approach CarryMinati, just as the 2023-2024 contract had ended.
Zupee’s approach, it says, “was suspiciously well-timed and significantly disrupted the ongoing negotiations”. It also claims that Zupee went on to make “an unsolicited and substantially higher offer to onboard him”.
WinZO was finally able to retain CarryMinati, but only by paying him a substantially higher price, causing financial strain and disruption to its business operations.
Zupee denies allegations
On 20 November, lawyers representing WinZO and Zupee went head-to-head before the high court.
WinZO has also filed an application seeking an interim injunction restraining the agencies from approaching or inducing any of its employees to divulge confidential information.
It also demanded an injunction restraining the agencies from using, disseminating or benefitting from any trade secrets or confidential information acquired through “unethical means”.
WinZO told the court that the research agencies approached its employees to seek confidential business regarding its business. Its lawyer, senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, submitted that this was being done at Zupee’s behest.
Sibal denied the allegations. He submitted that Zupee didn’t have anything to do with two of the four research companies and has engaged the other two agencies as consultants for market research.
In an order seen by ThePrint, the court has issued notice on this application, allowing parties to file their responses within four weeks. It has ordered the matter to be listed in court again on 27 February next year.
WinZO has also filed an application demanding the appointment of a local commission to visit the premises of all the defendants, along with technical experts, to conduct an on-site inspection of their offices, to collect and preserve all emails, WhatsApp chats and other electronic communications.
It also wants the appointment of local commissioners to examine the financial records of the defendants to identify any payments made between the agencies and Zupee.
Zupee has claimed that the court’s decision not to grant WinZo’s interim relief “underscores the lack of merit in this baseless legal endeavour”.
“This appears to be yet another instance of WinZo pursuing frivolous litigation across the industry,” the statement read.
“Zupee is the undisputed market leader in its core offerings, and significantly larger than WinZo in both scale and market share. The suggestion that we need or would use WinZo’s data is entirely unfounded. We will defend ourselves against such unethical, coercive and defamatory tactics, and we remain committed to fair competition and innovation,” it added.
This report has been updated to incorporate Zupee’s response.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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