Evony Drops Libel Suit Against Blogger

A libel suit filed by Evony, LLC last year against a UK-based blogger has been dropped.

Evony is, of course, the company behind the game of the same name, the one which litters seemingly every last corner of the Internet with ads usually accompanied by ample female cleavage. Ex-Imagine and Codemaster marketer Bruce Everiss (pictured) has been taking the company to task on his blog for quite some time now, detailing some of the sketchy practices used by the game’s creator.

Evony filed its lawsuit in Australia, a move that Everiss called “libel tourism,” and dropped the case just two days into hearings, reports the Guardian. A Vice Development Director for Evony said in a statement that the case was dropped in deference to criticism from players of the game themselves. “A lot of our players expressed opinions about the lawsuit, and we reacted to that,” said Benjamin Gifford.

Evony is now saddled with a bill of $114,000 AU (approximately $104,550 U.S.) for Everiss’ legal costs. The company also must pay a security fee of $80,000 AU (approximately $73,350 U.S.) by April 12, or the case could conceivably reconvene.

The Guardian wrote that Evony’s case began unraveling once Gifford began to fold under cross-examination by Everiss’ lawyers. Gifford admitted to not having either BA or MBA degrees, despite earlier claims. Everiss’ lawyers were also able to find out a little bit more about Evony, as they, “established links between Evony and two companies, Regan Mercantile of Hong Kong – owned by a mysterious woman named Lu Lu – and Regan Mercantile of New York.”

If the lawsuit was intended to quiet Everiss, it didn’t work; his website is chock full of fascinating stories about Evony, including one with inside information on the company supplied by a supposed ex-employee. In another post, he cites a source to claim that Evony rakes in more than $150,000 per day.

In a post on his blog about the end of the lawsuit, Everiss gave kudos to those who helped him out during the process and added:

Finally I would like to thank the many people who work or who worked on the Evony game who have contacted me, from China and from the West, often at personal risk, to give me the information you have seen reported here.