Intuit Inc has filed suit against CheckFree Corp, alleging that the online bill presentment company has violated the terms of an April 1998 agreement between the two companies. The suit, which was filed Santa Clara County Superior Court, seeks damages and injunctive relief against CheckFree. Intuit, which owns 20% of CheckFree, alleges that in the disputed contract, CheckFree agreed to support Intuit web-based bill presentment products with its processing services, and not to offer web-based bill presentment products of its own in certain distribution channels.
CheckFree, however, has been offering such services – which allow customers of various utilities or financial services companies the ability to view and pay their bills online – from its own web site. The company has also been doing some of the back-end processing for other bill presentment outfits. Intuit’s stake in the defendant came as the result of a 1996 deal which saw the company turn over its online banking and bill processing division to CheckFree in exchange for more than 50 million shares.
