Anyone that I provide services for like- CJ, Amazon, Linkshare, or article submission sites, etc. all request a tax payer id. Because I am a sole proprietor I can use my US social security number as the tax id. These businesses that I am affiliated with, also have my business banking information - for direct deposits. When I set up the bank account I also provided my social security number along with other documents to confirm my identity. The affiliate ads that I have and do run on my sites over the years were setup correctly-- because impressions and clicks I have -- are being reported. Long story short-- for the sake of argument-- lets say I am right about all of this-- too many have interfered with my business. How much trouble can they be in if I prove they interfered with my business, hijacked my online revenue streams and changed traffic reports on my sites- costing me revenue? Q...
Who are "they"? What were the T&Cs of the contracts/ MOUs/ Partnership Agreements between you? Cannot say for the USA exactly, but as you are a sole trader it clearly cannot be your co-directors and so they have no "in law" requirement to do the best for your business and so everything comes down to the contracts between the parties in question. If you can prove they have breached the T&Cs you would be able to sue them for loss of earnings to the sum of that you can prove is directly related to their actions up to any limits specified in the contracts. In the UK we only have the concept of indemnity(restoring your financial position), in the USA there is however punitive damages (ie punishment beyond actual loss) but I dont know how/ when punitive damages can come into play.
Thanks for the great response, however I am in the US and so are the businesses I am affiliated with... Q...
Your post sounds more like a paranoid person than one with a legitimate claim. The phrase, "too many have interfered with my business" implies that there is more than one party involved. Skipping that part for now, if you can prove that somebody stole your sales, in some illegal manner, then of course you can sue. Let's assume you are being cookie stuffed, so you are losing sales. You would need to investigate, find who did it, sue them, and then prove your case. Whether or not any of that is worth it depends on the money at stake. The online world is just like the regular world. If you want to sue somebody for stealing from you, hire a lawyer and prove it.
I like deciding for myself when I am done with a thread. You may reply or not, it is up to you. If they broke criminal laws when they "hijacked" your revenue and "changed traffic reports" on your sites then you could report them to the police. If it is just a question of your money that was taken then they can be sued for your damages, and some provisions in the law allow for damages above and beyond what you were actually damaged, but it would depend on the specific facts, which I already noted are in scant supply.