ChannelAdvisor Corporation filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Georgia on September 30th against a former employee who had worked for its Australian subsidiary and resides in Victoria, Australia. According to the complaint, the former employee sent out false and defamatory messages in August.

According to the court filing, "Defendant attempted to conceal her identity by using "anonymous" e-mail accounts and using the pseudonym, "Channel Buster". However, some versions of the e-mail message sent by Defendant include formatting and file references that clearly identify Defendant by name and/or by her initials."

The email message that ChannelAdvisor alleges the defendant sent to its customers warn them about the financial viability of the company, accuse it of overcharging customers, and states that it laid off key staff that were "integral in the development and update of the software and the business."

ChannelAdvisor's lawsuit contends that, "As a direct and proximate result of Defendant's conduct, ChannelAdvisor has suffered actual damages (in an amount to be proven at trial) associated with the costs of addressing and remedying the intentional and malicious injuries to its contractual business relations caused by plaintiff's defamatory e-mail messages."

The lawsuit states that the defendant is presently engaged in employment-related litigation against ChannelAdvisor's Australian subsidiary in Australia.

ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo sent a message to customers this week informing them of the litigation. "We've always had strong intellectual property and confidentiality agreements that all employees sign. We've instituted some changes to our internal CRM system that make it harder for someone to bulk download information. This gives us two levels of protection of CA's proprietary information and we will continue to monitor and enforce where necessary."