Automattic’s Legal Battles Over WordPress Will Last for Years

The two significant lawsuits involving Automattic continue to wind their way through the courts, and neither shows signs of wrapping up anytime soon.

The first case, WP Engine v. Automattic, is deep in discovery and bogged down in disputes over scope. WP Engine accuses Automattic of stonewalling on evidence requests related to alleged interference with contracts, defamatory public statements, and an attempt to secure 8% of WP Engine’s gross revenues. Automattic argues it has already produced more than enough documents and calls WP Engine’s demands excessive. Judge Donna Ryu will decide whether discovery proceeds broadly or on Automattic’s narrower terms. Fact discovery closes in November, but the trial is not set to begin until February, 2027.

The second case, Keller v. Automattic & Mullenweg, is a class action filed on behalf of WP Engine customers in the U.S. during the period of the WordPress.org ban. Plaintiffs Ryan Keller and Sharon Schanzer allege intentional interference with contracts and violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law. If Automattic’s motion to dismiss fails in December, the court will determine whether to certify the case as a class action, That decision is not expected until mid-2026. Even without certification, the case would likely proceed with the named plaintiffs.

Both lawsuits hinge in part on whether the court agrees that there was an implicit promise between WordPress.org and users (including WP Engine and its customers) that the platform would remain neutral and accessible. Interestingly, the same judge is overseeing both cases, so a ruling in one could strongly influence the other.

For agencies, the sooner these matters are resolved, the better. Disputes of this magnitude cast a long shadow over the stability of a platform we depend on. But with trials likely years away, this chapter of WordPress history is far from over.

Will Agentic AI Tools Redefine WordPress Site Management?

• Hostinger, Elementor, and GoDaddy are introducing agentic AI assistants that perform real, multi-step tasks inside WordPress and related services.
• Hostinger’s Kodee is a chat-based AI tool powered by the Model Context Protocol (MCP) that allows site owners to perform tasks like updating content and adjusting plugin settings with a natural language prompt.
• What are the real world implications? In its demo video, for example, Kodee enables inventory management for a particular product with a simple request.
• Elementor’s Angie is an agentic AI plugin that works across Elementor, Gutenberg, WooCommerce, and Advanced Custom Fields to create pages, publish content, and launch promotions.
• Angie’s abilities are extendable through an MCP-based SDK which lets plugins register custom tools the AI can call via the WordPress REST API.
• GoDaddy’s Ask Airo builds on its existing Airo AI product, adding yhe ability to manage websites, domains, payments, and marketing from a conversational interface.
• Ask Airo covers the full GoDaddy platform and will even hand off to a human “Guide” when needed.
• This first generation of agentic AI tools is a glimpse into what WordPress site management as a whole could become. “Basic” WordPress site management could soon become a conversation rather than a flurry of clicks.

Cloudflare Calls Out Perplexity for Intentionally Dodging No-Crawl Rules

• Cloudflare has identified that Perplexity is using undeclared crawlers to bypass website no-crawl directives.
• If a site blocks the PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User crawlers, the company instead switches to a generic browser user agent that impersonates Chrome on macOS.
• These stealth crawlers use IP addresses outside Perplexity’s published ranges, rotate IPs, and shift across different ASNs to avoid detection.
• Cloudflare testing showed that even newly registered, undiscoverable domains with restrictive robots.txt and WAF rules were accessed by Perplexity’s crawlers.
• In response, Cloudflare has removed Perplexity from its verified bots list and added detection signatures to block this stealth crawling for all customers, including free accounts.
• Cloudflare expects evasion tactics like these to keep evolving and is working with global standards bodies to establish stronger rules for responsible bot behavior.

Worth a Look

• The WordCamp US 2025 schedule has been posted. I’ll be speaking on Confident Consultations on Friday, August 29 @ 11:30 AM PT.
• Substack has changed how people talk about blogging.
• ChatGPT 5.0 started rolling out last week with significant improvements.
• Patchstack has launched RapidMitigate, a next-gen vulnerability mitigation tool.
• Toolbox for WordPress (launched recently by Davinder Singh Kainth) aims to be the largest resource hub for WordPress professionals.
• Finding SQL Injection vulnerabilities in themes and plugins – a deep dive from WordFence.