The judge orders WordPress's parent company to stop blocking WP Engine.

A California district court has issued a preliminary injunction in favor of WP Engine in its dispute with Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com. In this ruling, Automattic is ordered to cease its blocking of WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org resources and any interference with its plugins.

The confrontation between the two parties escalated in September when Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, launched a public campaign against WP Engine. On this occasion, Mullenweg accused the service of misusing the WordPress brand and of not contributing enough to the WordPress community. As part of these actions, Automattic restricted WP Engine's access to WordPress.org servers and took control of WP Engine's ACF plugin.

Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín found WP Engine's claims to be valid, stating that Automattic's actions had harmed WP Engine's business relationships. She asserted that "Mullenweg's conduct is intended to induce the violation or disruption" of those business relationships. Regarding Automattic's defense, which blamed WP Engine for depending on WordPress.org for its operation, the judge found this argument unconvincing. The ruling emphasizes that "the defendants cannot ignore their role in helping to bring about that harm through their recent specific actions against WP Engine and not against any other competitor."

The court's decision also highlights that WP Engine could suffer irreparable harm without the granting of injunctive relief, which would also affect the members of the WordPress community. As a result of the preliminary injunction, Automattic will have to remove a list of companies it had created to track customers leaving WP Engine, as well as retract the checkbox asking WordPress users to verify that they were not affiliated with WP Engine when logging in.

WP Engine expressed its satisfaction with the ruling through a post on X, thanking for the restraining order that restores its access and functionality to WordPress.org for WP Engine, its clients, and users. For its part, an Automattic spokesperson, Megan Fox, commented that the company expects to "emerge victorious in the trial."