The long battle between Automattic and WP Engine has flared again, this time with accusations the latter company issued “false advertising”, and employed “deceptive business practices.”

This story starts in September 2024, when Matt Mullenwegg, co-creator of the open source CMS WordPress, attacked a company called WP Engine that offers WordPress hosting services. Mullenweg is also CEO of a company called Automattic that also offers WordPress hosting services, and oversees WordPress.org – the home of the open source project that leads development of the CMS.

Mullenweg accused WP Engine of profiting from WordPress without making appropriate contributions to the open source community. Automattic holds the trademarks for “WordPress” and demanded WP Engine pay a license to use it.

WP Engine

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