Playboy Enterprises, the parent company behind the legendary adult magazine based in Beverly Hills, filed a lawsuit against a Canadian-based computer technology company, alleging fraud and breach of contract, allegedly failed to comply with an agreement to integrate Blockchain technology in media channels in the Playboy line.
According to the lawsuit, filed in early August before the Superior Court of Los Angeles, Playboy and Global Blockchain Technologies (GBT) signed a memorandum of understanding in March, according to which GBT would help Playboy to integrate the Vice Industry Token (VIT) ) on their platforms. Playboy said that GBT did not comply with the deal and did not pay the US $ 4 million promised as part of the agreement.
The adult entertainment company planned to use the token to reward users of the platform for watching videos, writing comments and voting for content.
At that time, Playboy also announced that it was developing an online payment wallet that would support a range of cryptocurrencies in the media, digital and casual games businesses at the company. Plaboy.TV was expected to be the first online platform to accept the VIT token and other crypto.
With the suit, Playboy seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, lawyers Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld said. GBT dismissed the lawsuit as a "normal dispute" between two commercial parties, adding that the allegation of fraud is "frivolous."
"Global believes it has a strong defense of the action and will vigorously defend the same," the Vancouver-based company, BC, said in a statement to The Times.
Under the agreement, GBT was expected to provide "no cost" technical support for Playboy and pay $ 4 million to license the Playboy brand in its own promotional materials. The payment had to be made on July 16, which did not happen.
However, GBT used the adult entertainment company's brand to attract investors, falsely claiming that all of the company's projects are "up to date," Playboy said.
The adult entertainment industry has been progressively adopting digital currencies. In April, the Pornhub streaming site partnered with Verge cryptocurrency (XVG) to be accepted as a payment option for Pornhub purchases. Vice President of Pornhub, Corey Price, said in a press release:
"History has shown that the adult entertainment industry plays a critical role in the adoption of innovative technology. We saw that with VHS, Beta Max, credit card payment icons and, more recently, virtual reality glasses. We expect to see widespread adoption of crypto and Blockchain in no time. "
Despite this, even the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies in this industry remains relatively low.