Deel officially agrees to be served legal papers in Rippling’s lawsuit

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HR tech giant Deel says it has formally accepted to be served legal documents in its ongoing court battle with rival Rippling in Ireland. This ends weeks of suspense after Rippling’s bailiffs couldn’t find Deel’s execs to serve them — only for Deel’s CEO and top lawyer to turn up in Dubai.

Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz, along with Deel lawyers Asif Malik and Andrea David Mieli, all agreed to accept service through Deel’s Irish law firm today, Deel confirmed to TechCrunch. Deel Inc., which is Deel’s U.S. entity, was already served on April 16, an affidavit filed by Rippling this morning in Irish court shows.

“Today in court in Dublin Hayes Solicitors agreed to accept service on behalf of all four parties,” a Deel spokesperson told TechCrunch.

In the affidavit filed this morning, Rippling repeated that it hadn’t been able to serve Bouaziz, Malik, and Mieli, detailing its efforts to do so in France and Italy. For example, Rippling hired French bailiffs to serve Bouaziz at a listed address in Paris on April 10, but only stumbled upon a relative who told them Bouaziz was in Dubai. 

On April 15, TechCrunch reported Bouaziz was in Dubai, with Deel not responding to requests for comment at the time. However, 10 days later, Deel told TechCrunch that Bouaziz “lives in Israel” and was only in Dubai for a few days to celebrate Passover.

TechCrunch asked Deel if it can clarify where Bouaziz is currently located, but Deel declined, citing privacy reasons.

Deel slammed the idea that its executives have been avoiding getting served, despite Rippling’s failed attempts to do so through various process servers. “It’s a misrepresentation that anyone was avoiding service and that narrative was clearly being used as a public smear tactic,” Deel’s spokesperson said.

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Deel told TechCrunch that Malik’s move to Dubai had been planned for over a year, well before Rippling’s lawsuit. Regarding Andrea David Mieli, whom Rippling said in their affidavit they had been unable to serve in Italy, Deel said he lives and works from home in Italy and was available.

The lawsuit centers on Rippling’s claims that Deel bribed one of its employees in Ireland, Keith O’Brien, to spy on its internal affairs on behalf of Deel. And O’Brien himself testified that he had been spying in a lengthy affidavit.

After weeks of silence, Deel is very publicly fighting back, filing a countersuit in the U.S. last week, making various accusations against Rippling, including that it cultivated its own insider inside Deel. 

In response, Rippling CEO Parker Conrad took to X to post, “Nowhere does Deel dispute our central allegation — that @Bouazizalex personally recruited a spy to steal rippling’s trade secrets, and personally directed the theft.”

Rippling did not respond to a request for comment.