Opinion ID: 176145
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: A Final Look at Fairness

Text: Before concluding the analysis, we must still satisfy ourselves that the exercise of specific jurisdiction over GoDaddy in Illinois would not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. Burger King, 471 U.S. at 476, 105 S.Ct. 2174, quoting International Shoe, 326 U.S. at 320, 66 S.Ct. 154. The concerns that the Supreme Court has identified for this final inquiry are the burden on the defendant, the forum state's interest in adjudicating the dispute, the plaintiff's interest in obtaining convenient and effective relief, the interstate judicial system's interest in efficiently resolving controversies, and the shared interest of the states in furthering fundamental substantive social policies. See id. Some of these concerns counsel in favor of allowing Illinois to exercise personal jurisdiction in this case; none point the other way. The burden of defending a lawsuit in Illinois is minimal for GoDaddy, a corporation with a broad enough reach to operate and market its services on a national scale. Though uBID is also a successful, sophisticated corporation, a finding that GoDaddy is not subject to personal jurisdiction in a forum it has so thoroughly exploited would create significant barriers to effective relief for similarly situated plaintiffs with more limited resources. We must also be mindful of Illinois's significant interest in providing a forum for its residents to seek relief when they suffer harm in Illinois from a wrong that occurred at least in part in Illinois. Along those lines, we do not view the presence of uBID's headquarters in Illinois as necessary to establish personal jurisdiction here, but we can agree with our concurring colleague at least to the extent that uBID's presence does not weaken an already-sufficient case for personal jurisdiction but actually strengthens the case for the fairness of jurisdiction in Illinois. We share our concurring colleague's concern about adopting an overly expansive test of jurisdiction for internet-based commerce. See also State of Illinois v. Hemi Group, 622 F.3d at 760; Jennings v. AC Hydraulic A/S, 383 F.3d 546, 549-50 (7th Cir.2004). GoDaddy's contacts with Illinois are extensive. It has hundreds of thousands of customers in the state and earns millions of dollars in revenue from the state each year. Illinois residents encounter GoDaddy's ads on television, on the Internet, and on billboards at Wrigley Field and the United Center, among many others. GoDaddy has continuously and deliberately exploited the Illinois market for domain name registration and has profited handsomely from it. Now GoDaddy is being called to account for alleged harm to an Illinois resident arising directly from the services GoDaddy provides to its Illinois customers, at least two of whom registered domain names that contributed to the alleged harm. There is no unfairness in requiring GoDaddy to defend that lawsuit in the courts of the state where, through the very activity giving rise to the suit, it continues to gain so much. See State of Illinois v. Hemi Group, 622 F.3d at 760 (finding that jurisdiction in Illinois was fair where defendant had set up expansive, sophisticated commercial venture online, held itself out to conduct business nationwide, and succeeded in reaching customers across the country). We recognize that our analysis here does not provide crisp, bright lines for district courts and litigants, but this is a field of law where the Supreme Court has repeatedly refused opportunities to draw such bright lines. See, e.g., Burger King, 471 U.S. at 486 & n. 29, 105 S.Ct. 2174 (standard of `fair play and substantial justice' necessarily requires determinations `in which few answers will be written in black and white. The greys are dominant and even among them the shades are innumerable.'), quoting Kulko v. California Superior Court, 436 U.S. 84, 92, 98 S.Ct. 1690, 56 L.Ed.2d 132 (1978). In this case, the relationship among the defendant, the forum, and the litigation, see Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186, 204, 97 S.Ct. 2569, 53 L.Ed.2d 683 (1977), is close enough not to offend due process. Accordingly, we REVERSE the district court's judgment dismissing the suit for lack of personal jurisdiction and REMAND for further proceedings.