Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, July 18, 2023:
A series of lawsuits and countersuits between load board operator DAT and digital brokerage company Convoy has been resolved through an “amicable settlement,” the companies announced Tuesday.
“DAT and Convoy have amicably resolved their dispute on confidential terms, including a payment by Convoy to DAT to avoid the uncertainty and expense of continued litigation,” the companies said in a joint statement. “Convoy recognizes and appreciates DAT’s significant contributions to the freight industry, and both Convoy and DAT are pleased to put this dispute behind them.”
The lawsuits stemmed from allegations from DAT last year that Convoy used mutually-agreed-to limited access to DAT’s load board to develop its Convoy for Brokers platform that launched in November 2021.
[Related: Broker, load board embroiled in legal battle]
According to the lawsuit, Convoy used its access to DAT “to misappropriate data and trade secrets belonging to DAT” and to “create its own competing load board by using DAT’s data and trade secrets.”
In response, Convoy countersued DAT, alleging that DAT is a monopoly in the load board market. The countersuit claimed that the non-compete clauses in DAT’s contract that companies don’t develop a competing load board, such as the one Convoy agreed to, are “anticompetitive forced agreements to allocate the market, and to allocate it all to DAT.”
