I recently received a slightly unusual update from Phil. Normally he sends out offers for new soaps, news on new razors, and all the fun stuff. This one is a lot less fun… double so since this also seems to be why the ShaveNook – my favorite shave forum – suddenly disappeared.

I’ll quote the newsletter in full:

A parasitic low life is trying to sue us for $25,000 claiming that the Bullgoose website is not ADA Compliant. He apparently makes his living by shaking down businesses and as of last week, he had 188 open ADA cases against other businesses.

Rather than settle, we have decided to fight this legalized extortion. Someone needs to draw a line in the sand and stop this scoundrel. Please help our fight for justice by placing an order. Anything helps in this crazy time.

From Phil’s newletter

While I am all for making websites accessible, this do not appear to be the goal of the plaintiff. As a matter of fact, my own cursory research using a free online tool seems to indicate that the BullGooose Shaving Supplies website is ADA compliant or mostly so.

There is a wider danger here though. Most shops and forums catering to our hobby is small operations, usually run on a shoe string budget and by people who isn’t up to dealing with a lawsuit. So litigation like this pose a real risk – small shops, artisans, and forum administrators may well opt to shut down rather than try to fight a legal battle.