Class action suit possible against Mobclix for not paying indie developers

by Jeff Sherk

UPDATE May 18, 2013:
If you have not been payed by Mobclix and are interested in a Class Action suit then you need to go the following site:
http://www.mobclix-pay.us/

UPDATE April 30, 2013:
As of April 30, 2013 we have over $500,000 claimed as owing to the developers that have posted in the comments below, as well as another developer that told me he is owed over $100,000. However a couple days ago I received a check from Mobclix for the full amount owing to me, so obviously I am no longer going to need to be involved in a class action suit. But in order to facilitate the rest of you that still have an issue, please join:
(1) Mobclix Pay Us website: http://www.mobclix-pay.us/
(2) Skype group:
mobclixclassaction
(3) Google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/mobclix-class-action
At the bottom of this post, I also added a sample copy of the letter and the invoice that I sent to Mobclix on April 1st. You can use these as a template if you want. Please note that I am not promising this will work and there is no guarantee it will work… I am simply sharing what worked for me.

WARNING:
If you press them for the money they owe you, they may DISABLE your account. Here is the email response I received:
I have a payment ready to be sent out for your account. Please provide us with a mailing address. We will also be turning off ad serving as well and disabling your account.
So make sure you have removed Mobclix SDK from your apps before you start to chase them for your money.

ORIGINAL POST…

Mobclix Inc (mobclix.com) is a mobile ad exchange network that was acquired by Velti (NASDAQ: VELT) in 2010. And I highly recommend you do NOT use them, because they won’t pay you!

As a game publisher, I integrated the Mobclix publisher SDK in some of my games last year (May 2012) in order to show banner ads to my users. Mobclix is then supposed to pay me for the ads impressions and ad clicks that I deliver in my games. Their Terms of Service state that they pay their publishers Net 90 after the end of each month. Now 90 days is certainly not a very fast payment cycle, but its what they offered and I agreed to it.

However it appears that they do not honor their own Terms of Service. I stopped using Mobclix on December 4, 2012 as they still had not made any payments to me that had met the Net 90 criteria for May, June and July.

We are now the end of March 2013 and I still have not received anything from them, with amounts overdue by 300 days.

Here is their response to my most recent attempt to contact them about it in early March 2013:
We have started issuing out August [2012] earnings in batches for those earning over $100+. You should expect a payment in the coming weeks if you’ve earning over $100+ during the August earning period.

August? Well what about my earnings from May, June and July? And what about the fact that everything up to the end of November meets the Net 90 day criteria?

They currently owe me over $2800, and I am also in touch with two other indie developers that are in a similar situation and are both owed over $2000 each.

We would like to start a class action suit against Mobclix, so please join the Mobclix Pay Us webste http://www.mobclix-pay.us/. There is also a SKYPE group (skype id: mobclixclassaction )  and Google Group you can join: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/mobclix-class-action

Thanks

PS – Here are some of the responses I received from Mobclix when I asked about where my payments were:

October 25th, 2012 – “We issue payments on Net 90 (we’re running 2 months behind on net 90) of $100+. We will be issuing out June payments at the end of this month.”

December 4th, 2012 – “The invoices are being loaded as we speak.”

March 11th, 2013 – “We have started issuing out August earnings in batches for those earning over $100+. You should expect a payment in the coming weeks if you’ve earning over $100+ during the August earning period.”

April 1st, 2013 – Here are PDF versions of the sample letter and invoice that I sent to Mobclix at the beginning of April. Please note that I am not promising this will work and there is no guarantee it will work… I am simply sharing what worked for me.

– Sample Letter (PDF)

– Sample Invoice (PDF)


UPDATE May 18, 2013:

If you have not been payed by Mobclix and are interested in a Class Action suit then you need to go the following site:
http://www.mobclix-pay.us/