A federal judge in Chicago has allowed a bitter dispute between two car shipping companies to proceed on claims that one used thousands of toxic backlinks to sabotage the other’s Google rankings. The ruling, issued June 2 by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly, marks a rare test of whether old-school false advertising law can police modern search manipulation tactics.
Montway LLC and SGT Auto Transport accuse rival Nexus AT LLC and its CEO George Arkin of orchestrating a campaign that planted more than 2,350 spammy links to their sites. Those links, the suit says, came from low-quality domains stuffed with content about steroids, payday loans, illegal betting, cocaine and unlicensed guns. The anchor text didn’t match the destination. It screamed something else entirely.
The allegations paint a picture of calculated digital sabotage.
According to the verified complaint, the effort began in April 2025. It intensified even after Montway sent a cease-and-desist letter that October. A former Nexus manager allegedly told Montway executives that Arkin personally directed an SEO contractor to build the links. The goal? Tank the plaintiffs’ search visibility and smear their brands by association. None of these claims have been proven at trial. Nexus has denied them in court filings.
The case, Montway LLC v. Nexus AT LLC, No. 1:25-cv-13100 (N.D. Ill.), survived a motion to dismiss on most counts. Judge Kennelly kept the federal Lanham Act false advertising claim alive. He also preserved trademark infringement, dilution by tarnishment and Illinois consumer protection allegations. Only California’s unfair competition claims were thrown out because the plaintiffs failed to show injury felt in that state. Search Engine Land first reported the decision today.
Why does this matter? For years, companies hit by negative SEO had one real option: file a disavow list with Google and hope the algorithm ignored the junk. Reporting the attacker rarely produced results. Now a court has signaled that victims might sue under laws written long before Google existed. The theory treats the anchor text itself as a literally false statement. If the text promises one thing but the link delivers another, that’s advertising deception, the opinion reasons.
Rebecca Tushnet, a Harvard Law professor specializing in trademark and advertising law, examined the decision on her blog. She questioned whether backlinks truly qualify as “commercial advertising or promotion” under the Lanham Act. “The court agreed that ‘Nexus’s alleged toxic backlinking campaigns are comparable to negative advertising,'” Tushnet wrote, quoting the opinion. “The alleged toxic backlinks serve the same goals as negative advertisements: to denigrate a competitor.” Yet she wondered if that comparison holds under Seventh Circuit precedent. Read her full analysis here.
Tushnet also criticized the trademark portions. The harm alleged is “purely algorithmic,” she noted. Plaintiffs didn’t claim any human consumer actually saw the toxic links and became confused. Instead, they argued Google’s trustworthiness signals dropped, reducing organic traffic. The court accepted that this could support claims of affiliation confusion and tarnishment. Fame for the marks was inferred simply from years of use and ad spending. Tushnet called the tarnishment finding “appallingly” thin on legal citation.
Still, the ruling advances. Discovery continues. Protective orders cover sensitive materials. An expert has been appointed. A status hearing wrapped up weeks ago. The full case docket remains active on Court Listener. View the complete filings.
Industry observers have watched similar complaints for years. Negative SEO attacks spike after core updates. One pattern repeats: flat backlink counts for months, then a sudden flood of low-authority domains with drug-related or gambling anchor text. Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush flag them quickly. But proving who paid for the campaign has always been difficult. Here, the internal whistleblower allegation and timing around the cease-and-desist give Montway a stronger hand than most.
Google itself has downplayed the lasting power of toxic links in recent years. Its SpamBrain system supposedly filters obvious spam at scale. Yet real-world cases show traffic drops when attacks overwhelm the filters. A 2026 analysis found that while many spammy links are ignored, targeted campaigns with thousands of new domains can still trigger ranking losses or manual actions. Companies in competitive local markets, auto transport among them, remain especially vulnerable.
But. This lawsuit shifts the conversation from algorithm complaints to courtroom evidence. If Montway prevails, it could encourage more businesses to gather evidence of competitor-directed link spam and file Lanham Act suits. False advertising claims require proof of commercial speech, literal or implied falsity, deception likely to influence buying decisions, and injury. Anchor text as the “statement” is a creative stretch. Courts have applied the Act to websites, keywords and even domain names before. Backlinks test the boundary further.
And the implications stretch beyond auto shipping. E-commerce operators, law firms, SaaS providers, anyone ranking high on valuable keywords could face copycat attacks. Defenders already monitor link profiles weekly. Many upload disavow files monthly as routine hygiene. The Montway case may make legal letters and lawsuits part of that playbook.
Plaintiffs spent heavily on legitimate SEO, affiliate programs and paid search to earn their positions. The complaint details how those investments built trust signals that the alleged campaign tried to destroy. That narrative resonates. Search visibility isn’t abstract. For many businesses it’s the difference between steady leads and silence.
Of course the defendants deny directing any such campaign. They call the claims speculative. The case could settle before trial. Or it could produce precedent that either expands or limits how far the Lanham Act reaches into search optimization wars. Either outcome will shape how companies respond to suspected sabotage.
Google has stayed silent on the litigation. Its public statements continue to stress that spammy links generally don’t help or hurt much anymore. Insiders suspect the company would prefer these disputes stay out of federal court. Yet if judges start treating backlink campaigns as false ads, search engineers may face more subpoenas for ranking data.
The auto transport sector is no stranger to cutthroat competition. Brokers vie for the same dealership and consumer shipments. Online quotes and reviews drive decisions. A few spots higher in Google results can mean millions in annual revenue. In that environment, the temptation to kneecap a rival’s visibility runs high.
Montway and SGT aren’t the first to cry foul over negative SEO. They may be the first to get a federal false advertising claim past the pleading stage with this theory. That alone makes the case worth following. As more evidence emerges in discovery, the industry will learn whether the links were coincidence, the work of an unrelated spammer, or exactly the directed attack alleged.
Either way, the ruling sends a message. Sabotage through toxic backlinks carries legal risk beyond just Google penalties. Businesses that invest in clean SEO now have another tool if they can prove a competitor pulled the trigger. The era of shrugging off suspicious link spikes may be ending.