In a recent federal judge ruling in the United States, Icelandic web host
DataCell has been told it will not be allowed to sue MasterCard and Visa. The web host, which has headquarters in Reykjavík, Iceland, is famed for being the web hosting provider for Sunshine Press Productions, a media organization that supports the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks was founded by Australian Julian Assange who has been living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 16 June 2013 awaiting a response to a request for political asylum from the Ecuadorian government. His request is a response to sexual assault charges he is facing in Sweden, charges he claims are politically motivated and an attempt to have him extradited to the United States to face criminal proceedings.
WikiLeaks was originally funded by donations provided via credit card payments over the internet. In a United States Federal Court in Alexandria, Virginia, USA, DataCell charged MasterCard and Visa with withdrawing their credit card payments services for the site after complaints from U.S. Congressman Peter King and former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman.
Mr. King and Mr. Lieberman complained to the credit card companies after WikiLeaks published a series of classified diplomatic cables in 2010. DataCell’s complaint suggests MasterCard and Visa forced their European business partners (Teller and Valitor) to withdraw their services, an act that “injured the media market by suppressing the market place of ideas." DataCell, the complaint also suggested, was also entitled to 5% of donations made to WikiLeaks, and requested $5 million in damages as a result of credit card services for lost revenue from lost donations.
Last month U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee ruled that DataCell does not have the legal position to pursue any claim. "If any entity had standing, it might have been Sunshine Press, not the company that provided Sunshine Press' server hosting and technical support," Judge Lee suggested.
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