PITTSBURGH – A Pittsburgh wholesale distributor of genuine OEM plumbing parts is accusing a New Jersey-based competitor of fraudulently accessing its proprietary information to gain a significant advantage in the marketplace.
Elias Industries, Inc. of Pittsburgh filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on July 6 versus Kissler & Co., Inc., of Carlstadt, N.J.
Elias Industries says it is a Pennsylvania-based, family-owned and operated business in operation since 1954, and one of its divisions is Tapco Genuine Parts Center.
The suit says Tapco is the largest wholesale distributor of genuine OEM plumbing parts in the United States, supplies plumbing parts for 85 of the world’s top plumbing lines and specializes in hard-to-find and obsolete plumbing parts to customers.
Meanwhile, Kissler is a New Jersey-based distributor of plumbing parts, which also manufactures parts which attempt to duplicate those of name-brand manufacturers.
“Tapco provides its customers access to an online Client Portal accessible through its website. The Client Portal allows customers to place and track orders and provides further information on product pricing, availability, and their ordering history. The Client Portal is available to Tapco customers only. Customers must request and Tapco has to provide a unique login and password to access the Client Portal,” according to the lawsuit.
Tapco customers from across the country used and continue to use the Client Portal to place orders for Tapco products which are then shipped to their locations of choice.
In September 2018, Tapco began to track visitors to the Client Portal using analytics, where they learned that someone in Carlstadt, N.J., the same city where the defendant is based, began using the credentials of another business to access the plaintiff’s Client Portal. A later IP investigation traced the access back to Kissler’s headquarters.
Until July 2019, the suit says Kissler and Tapco engaged in an intermittent game of cat and mouse: Kissler used a variety of different credentials to access to the Client Portal, but upon discovery of a successful login by Kissler using a customer’s credentials, Tapco immediately suspended the credentials of the particular customer. Kissler would then use a different set of credentials and continue attempting to log in. it.
In its suit, the plaintiff counted 88 total attempts at the defendant accessing or unsuccessfully attempting to access the Client Portal, on 12 different dates between September 2018 and July 2019.
Tapco is unable to determine if, or when, Kissler accessed the Client Portal without authorization prior to Sept. 18, 2018, but adds the frequency with which Kissler accessed the Client Portal and the persistence in using multiple different login credentials leads Tapco to believe Kissler accessed the portal on numerous occasions prior to September 2018.
“This information included product pricing and availability, customers’ buying history, preferences, and timing. Such information provided Kissler with a significant strategic, competitive advantage. Kissler could market the competing products to Tapco customers under more favorable terms,” the suit says.
“Upon information and belief, Tapco has suffered hundreds of thousands – if not millions of dollars – in lost profits and other costs as a result of the fraudulent access.”
For violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act tortious interference with both existing and prospective contractual relations and procurement of information by improper means, the plaintiff is seeking to recover all damages sustained as a result of defendant Kissler & Co. Inc.’s activities; that defendant Kissler & Co. Inc. and its officers, directors, agents, servants, employees, and all those persons in active concert or participation with defendant be permanently enjoined and restrained from further commissions of the fraudulent access, attorneys’ fees and costs, enhanced and punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest and such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.
The plaintiff is represented by Leah R. Imbrogno of Foley & Lardner, in Detroit.
The defendant has not yet secured legal counsel.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case 2:20-cv-01011
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com