Sotheby’s, the fine arts auction house, was recently named in the class action lawsuit brought by Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) investors against BAYC makers Yuga Labs. The investors allege that auction house Yuga Labs helped “deceptively promote” the nonfungible token (NFT) collection.
On Dec. 10, BAYC investors filed a class action lawsuit against more than 40 defendants, including Yuga Labs and celebrities such as Post Malone, Justin Beiber, and Paris Hilton. The lawsuit alleged that Yuga Labs and the celebrities were able to “artificially inflate” the prices of the NFTs through celebrity promotions.
In a new development, Sotheby’s has been named in an amendment to the lawsuit. On September 10, 2021, Sotheby’s auctioned 101 BAYC NFTs that generated more than $24 million in sales. Prosecutors allege that the auction house’s 2021 NFT auction helped make Yuga Labs look legitimate and mislead investors.
#AuctionUpdate 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have just sold for $24.4 million and 101 Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs have reached $1.8 million in our Ape in! auction – the most important #BAYC auction to date. Congratulations to all the monkeys out there pic.twitter.com/e7UghlgtKy
— Sotheby’s (@Sothebys) September 9, 2021
However, the auction house said in a statement to mainstream media outlet CNN that the allegations are “baseless”. Sotheby’s also added that they are prepared to “vigorously defend” their business.
In the same report, Yuga Labs also echoed Sotheby’s sentiments. According to the creators of BAYC, the new allegations are completely “without merit or factual basis”. The company also described the complaint as “opportunistic.”
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Meanwhile, another lawsuit involving Yuga Labs was settled earlier this year. On February 7, the NFT company settled a lawsuit against a developer involved in selling a counterfeit NFT collection called RR/BAYC. Yuga Labs and developer Thomas Lehman have agreed on a permanent injunction prohibiting the latter from using similar BAYC images or operating social media pages that insinuate any association with Yuga Labs.
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