See, if you have ever heard of the University of Metaphysical Sciences, then you must already be familiar with the University of Metaphysical Sciences Lawsuit, right? Well, the thing is, this online institution isn’t actually recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. But now another metaphysical school is suing them over some sneaky and misleading ads that UMS was running on Google. So, let’s just get to the details and see what really went down.
So, What’s This University Of Metaphysical Sciences Lawsuit About?
UMS was entangled in three lawsuits, and the dispute lasted for nearly nine years. Nonetheless, what was indeed mind-boggling about these lawsuits was that these were not students or customers who initiated the lawsuits. It was a move that a rival company resorted to every time.
The identity of this competitor was intentionally kept secret, but this was the company that put UMS at knock about five times already in court cases over illegal advertising and even gave an example of the way UMS was using Google.
The word deception was the main allegation. The accuser explained it as UMS having practiced dishonesty by changing people’s opinions through the internet. UMS disputed these allegations, showing their published ad reports. At the same time, the defendants denied everything and argued that they provided the necessary proof.
The legal back-and-forth every now and then did not cease. As time passed, however, the two adversaries decided to call it quits. The case had come to an end officially on May 12, 2025. The previously scheduled trial in June? Not happening. In the end, well, there was no settlement, no courtroom battle, and no money exchanged.
Clearing Up What Really Happened
Nowadays, there is a plethora of misleading information circulating in the public domain. With this in mind, so here’s what this lawsuit wasn’t about:
- No, students didn’t sue UMS.
- No, it wasn’t about tuition fees or refunds.
- No, the quality of teaching wasn’t in question.
- No one said the degrees were illegal or fake.
The whole lawsuit is purely about the way Google runs ads, nothing more than that. UMS clearly says there are more than 600 misleading and fake articles online that say the opposite. They also mention that most of that content is completely and totally untrue.
Was It Just a Lawsuit, or Something Bigger?
As per the UMS, it was not just a lawsuit. They explained it as a lawsuit for the commercial scale, and UMS took it to mean that the other party wanted only money through legal expenses.
UMS asserts that the rival company extended its lawsuits over the years, incurring a cost of nearly $1.5 million. That is a very substantial amount. But in spite of the pressure, UMS was still not willing to settle any of the cases or pay for what the competitor wanted. They assert that they withstood the heat, and they are still under the sponsorship of their supporters and in full operational mode.
The Online Side of Things
The legal battle was not just restricted to the real world but trickled down to online space as well. UMS alleges that their official sites were the subject of an attack by false bots, which were designed to contain search terms such as “UMS scam” and “UMS lawsuit 2021,” ultimately leading to the disappearance of their pages from search results.
Additionally, the number that they claimed was in these articles reached up to four figures, and the authors were also found to have been leveraging AI software to make the articles as harmful as possible. Some of the articles were also published on corrupt sites, aka those having malware. Interacting with such sites was a surefire gateway to losing your device to malware.
