Why Is the City of Augusta, Maine, Suing a Tech Company?

Even though we are sure that it happens all the time, the idea of a municipality suing a major corporation seems like something you'd see on a David E. Kelley legal drama.

Or, if it was a real-life story, it was happening in New York or California.  Not here in Maine.  Right?

Well, it appears that is exactly what is happening here in Maine.

According to Fox 22 in Bangor, the City of Augusta is the second municipality to bring a lawsuit against a company named Axon.  The lawsuit has to do with them reportedly having a market monopoly on certain products.

According to their website, Axon Enterprises, which is based in Scottsdale, Arizona, has been in business since 1993.  The company sells individual devices and suites to the military and law enforcement agencies.  Some of the products they sell are body cameras, in-vehicle cameras, and Taser non-lethal weapons.  They also sell software packages for keeping records and managing evidence.

The Fox 22 article explains that the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in NJ last week, takes issue with the company's supposed monopoly on two items: body cameras and Tasers.

Normally, a town or city shops around when it comes to purchasing nearly any product (or service).  Because there are, apparently, no other options when it comes to these devices, the city has no other option than to do business with Axon.

The article quotes Chief Jared Mills as saying:

Basically our issue has been in the past that we have looked to save money to our taxpayers by going with another product, but because of basically the relationship axon has with this product and it being the only game in town its really all we could go with

The lawsuit alleges that Axon Enterprises has done all it can to unlawfully maintain monopolies on the body cam and long-range conducted energy weapons markets.

You can read the entire complaint HERE, but you may need to run it through Chat GPT in order to completely understand it.

We'll keep an eye on this story for you.