The underlying case, James Quaid et al. v. Data Axle, Inc., centers on a familiar internet-era pitch: the free trial. According to the filing, Data Axle runs two consumer-facing platforms – data-axle.com, aimed at large organizations with complex data needs, and dataaxlegenie.com, designed for small and medium-sized businesses looking to generate leads. Both sites, the underlying plaintiffs allege, let prospective customers peek at real people’s names, addresses and other identifiers as a teaser to sell paid subscriptions.
