Cristiano Ronaldo Files Motions to Dismiss US Lawsuit Over Cryptocurrency Promotions
On Thursday, April 25, 2024, Portuguese professional footballer Cristiano Ronaldo filed a motion in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him.
The lawsuit, filed by three individuals, alleges that Ronaldo promoted investments in digital assets on social media without properly disclosing risks and failing to determine whether the assets were registered as securities. The plaintiffs, two from California and one from Florida claimed that after seeing Ronaldo’s social media promotions, they purchased digital assets on the cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance that were not registered as securities.
In his motion, Ronaldo argued that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over him as a citizen of Portugal who lives and plays soccer in Saudi Arabia. He stated that the plaintiffs have not shown that their claims arose from any actions or statements specifically carried out by Ronaldo in Florida. The documents also challenged the legal sufficiency of each cause of action in the lawsuit, including claims made under Florida, California, and Colorado securities laws as well as other consumer protection and tort statutes.
Ronaldo acknowledged promoting a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) featuring him on the Binance platform in November 2022 but pointed out that the plaintiffs do not allege purchasing any of those NFTs. His social media posts primarily promoted those Ronaldo NFTs and did not discuss investing in other digital assets available through Binance. Additionally, the terms of use on Binance require arbitration of any disputes rather than resolving claims in court.
The motion, which asks the court to dismiss the case or compel arbitration, argues the plaintiffs have not suffered any concrete injury specifically caused by Ronaldo and have not sufficiently pleaded facts to hold him liable for securities law violations or other claims.
Please contact BlockTribune for access to a copy of this filing.
