NEW YORK (AP) – The Huffington Post doesn’t have to pay bloggers for providing content for its website in part because they knew from the start they wouldn’t be paid and could have taken their work elsewhere, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge John Koeltl dismissed a lawsuit that bloggers filed last year. The lawsuit against the Huffington Post and its parent company, AOL Inc., argued they were unjustly denied compensation for their work.
The bloggers were seeking class-action status. The lawsuit was prompted by AOL’s $315 million purchase of the Huffington Post last year. The bloggers claimed that the website unjustly profited from their work, promising only exposure. They were seeking at least $105 million in damages.
AOL had argued that the bloggers gained exposure and a place to attract a big audience in exchange for the content.
Jonathan Tasini, the labor activist and blogger who filed the suit, had no immediate comment Friday, saying he had yet to see the ruling. Tasini, who now lives in Australia, started blogging for the Huffington Post in 2005 and stopped in early 2010.
Image Credit: Asa Mathat/Fortune MPW
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