Advert verification agency DoubleVerify is suing Adalytics, alleging that the analysis and analytics agency defamed the adtech firm in its March 28 report about fraudulent visitors in digital promoting. 

In a lawsuit filed in a Maryland district court docket Monday, DoubleVerify mentioned it needs to “maintain Adalytics accountable for its malicious publication and business exploitation of deceptive, disparaging, defamatory, and false statements regarding DoubleVerify and its enterprise.”

In its bot visitors report from late March, Adalytics prompt that DoubleVerify’s pre-bid filters typically fail to dam visitors from bots, even when bots disclosed that they weren’t actual folks.

Now, DoubleVerify alleges that this report falsely claimed that its methods fail to dam bot visitors, misleadingly implying that advertisers are routinely charged for invalid impressions. DoubleVerify alleges that these assertions injury its popularity and had been made to advertise Adalytics’ services and products, since Adalytics is a for-profit firm. 

The lawsuit claims Adalytics “knowingly” made “false public statements to drive prospects away from DoubleVerify. Accordingly, Adalytics acted with precise malice in publishing the false and deceptive statements.”

An Adalytics’ spokesperson mentioned in an announcement shared with ADWEEK: “We consider this case is with out advantage, and we are going to vigorously defend our rights and talent to serve the general public curiosity.”

The spokesperson accused DoubleVerify of making an attempt “to close down public discourse on vital issues of concern, slightly than following the instance of different advert tech distributors who interact in good religion with such analysis.”

A DoubleVerify spokesperson informed ADWEEK in an announcement: “As a coverage, we don’t touch upon ongoing authorized issues. DV has revealed an in depth rebuttal that makes our place clear, and we stand behind the standard and effectiveness of our options.”

Adalytics has revealed a number of studies which have raised issues in regards to the effectiveness of DoubleVerify’s model security and advert verification expertise.

In response to a February Adalytics report about failures within the adtech provide chain that led to ads for Fortune 500 brands appearing on a site known to host child sexual abuse material, DoubleVerify rolled out updated brand safety tools and enhanced reporting that permits advertisers to view the precise URLs on which their adverts are served.

However DoubleVerify later went on the offensive. The corporate aimed to debunk a few of Adalytics’ claims about its expertise and spotlight issues about Adalytics’ analysis methodologies in a report of its own, revealed April 7. 

In that report, DoubleVerify additionally alleged that “there’s a monitor document of Adalytics misrepresenting verification expertise and knowledge, and drawing false conclusions.”

In an try and get forward of the Adalytics bot report in January, DoubleVerify referred to as Adalytics’ assertions about its instruments “deceptive and manufactured.”