Australian firm sues Elon Musk-led Twitter for $665000 over non-payment of bills | Mint - Mint

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Elon Musk-led Twitter was hit by yet another lawsuit last week over non-payment of bills and rent. Australian project management firm Facilitate Corp has sought about A$1 million ($665,000) from Twitter over work done in four countries in the past year. The revelation came even as Twitter was forced to limit the number of posts users could see each day in a bid to lessen strains on Twitter’s servers. Musk had led several rounds of layoffs and implemented a slew of cost-cutting measures since he bought the social media platform for $44 billion last year.

The Sydney-based private company claimed that it had installed sensors in Twitter's offices in London and Dublin, completed an office fit-out in Singapore, and cleared an office in Sydney between 2022 and 2023. The breach of contract suit was filed on June 29 before the US District Court for the Northern District Of California.

Facilitate has sought compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial, legal costs and interest at the maximum legal rate. The company alleges that the social media giant owes it about 203,000 pounds, S$546,600 and A$61,300, respectively.

This is not the first non-payment suit filed against Twitter in recent months. A former public relations firm filed a case in May while an US-based advisory firm Innisfree M&A Inc sued it early this year, The latter has sought about $1.9 million for what it said were unpaid bills after it advised Twitter on its acquisition by Musk. Meanwhile Britain's Crown Estate - an independent commercial business that manages the property portfolio belonging to the monarchy - began court proceedings over alleged unpaid rent on Twitter's London headquarters in January.

Musk’s cost-cutting has come with technical snags and other such consequences. Over the weekend, the company was forced to cap the total number of posts users could see each day because of “extreme levels" of data scraping by “several hundred organizations".

(With inputs from agencies)