A few weeks back eBay brought a lawsuit against Craigslist, of which it owns an arguably sizable stake. We later learned that the reasons for eBay’s lawsuit was due to Craigslist’s steps to dilute eBay’s shares in the online classifieds company.

Why would Craigslist do such a thing? Because as part of the agreement between eBay and Craigslist indicated that “should they start competing with each other, each company has the right to resell shares without an ROFR,” as Stan reported in our previous coverage of this matter.

Now, Craigslist has responded with a filed complaint of its own, which has been filed in California. According to Craigslist’s blog, Craigslist is charging eBay with “with unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.”

In so many words, Craigslist is fighting back. In a big way. Craigslist isn’t just hoping to get eBay off its back, but it wants all of its shares back in its hands. Craigslist has in fact asked the Superior Court in San Francisco to:

(1) make full restitution to craigslist,
(2) disgorge their related profits
(3) restore to craigslist all shares of the company acquired by means of, or for the purpose of unfair competition, and
(4) pay punitive damages for their malicious behavior.

Wow. This just might get ugly.

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