- WP Engine says Automattic went after 10 other companies for royalties
- Approached Stripe to terminate its contract with WP Engine, hosting platform alleges
- Automattic says this is just an attempt to revive old complaints that have been dismissed
WP Engine has filed a third update to its complaint against Automattic and CEO Matt Mullenweg, focusing on the WordPress brand and whether WP Engine contributes enough to the open source platform.
Mullenweg had previously demanded 8% of WP Engine’s monthly gross revenue as a royalty to use the WordPress brand on grounds that it was not giving enough to the open source platform, but WP Engine filed a lawsuit with allegations of abuse of power.
The latest update claims that Mullenweg had also planned to target 10 other hosting companies with similar royalty demands.
WP Engine updates its complaint against Automattic
“WP Engine’s Third Amended Complaint contains newly unredacted information discovered during discovery that had previously been sealed at Defendants’ request,” the hosting company wrote in a blog update.
The complaint says Newfold Digital is already paying Automattic for use of the trademark; the names of the other companies were removed.
WP Engine even alleges that Mullenweg had attempted to pressure Stripe to cancel WP Engine’s payment processing contract after the lawsuit was filed.
In response, Automattic says the renewed filing is just an attempt to rework old allegations and that it is confident the courts will reject them. “There is nothing new here. This is the same narrative that WP Engine has been pushing for over a year, and the Court has already dismissed many of its core claims,” an Automattic spokesperson added.
In November 2025, WP Engine filed to dismiss counterclaims issued by Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, the WordPress Foundation, and WooCommerce.
Previous updates include “new facts discovered during discovery” in a second amendment and antitrust claims in a first amendment.
“The Court’s motion to dismiss the ruling allows most of WP Engine’s claims to proceed, including claims of intentional interference, unfair competition, and defamation,” WP Engine added.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
