- Private Jet Services filed a lawsuit against Twitter over an unpaid bill of nearly $200,000 last December.
- On Tuesday, Twitter said that the jet company overcharged it and the flights were unauthorized.
Twitter is fighting back against a private jet company which filed a lawsuit against the social-media company over an unpaid $197,725 bill.
The social-media company accused Private Jet Services of overcharging it for two flights in the days before Elon Musk's takeover was completed, according to court documents seen by Insider, which were filed Tuesday in the New Hampshire District Court.
Twitter said in the documents that it was sent one invoice for $103,850 on October 26, and one for $93,875 on October 27, totalling $197,725, which it said was well above market rate.
It also frequently referred in the documents to being billed $194,000 by Private Jet Services, but did not explain the discrepancy in figures.
"Market rate for next-day private air charter services, roundtrip, coast-to-coast on midsize jets are estimated at $70,000 to $96,000, and on large jets, $88,000 to $156,000," Twitter's lawyers said in a motion to dismiss the case.
"These ranges are substantially less than the $194,000 total invoices PJS sent Twitter."
When the suit was first filed in December 2022, Insider reported how Twitter's one-time chief marketing officer, Leslie Berland, took two flights between New Jersey and San Francisco in late October. Per Bloomberg, Berland was a primary contact for Elon Musk as he closed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on October 27.
In June 2022, she also moderated Musk's first conversation with Twitter staff, according to Insider's Kali Hays. Since leaving Twitter amid mass layoffs, Berland has taken on the CMO role at fitness company Peloton.
In the documents filed Tuesday, and previously in December, Twitter said that the flights weren't arranged by one of four employees at the company designated to do so.
Bloomberg reported that the employees named in the court filings as arranging the flights were the executive assistants of Berland, and Twitter's then-CEO, Parag Agrawal.
Twitter says that it believes the jet company breached this agreement over "designated representatives," and as such the lawsuit should be dismissed.
Greg Raiff, CEO of Private Jet Services, told Bloomberg: "Suffice it to say, we offered Twitter a price, they agreed to the price, and then they decided afterwards they didn't want to pay."
Twitter is also facing a $2 million lawsuit from a consulting firm which says it wasn't paid for work related to Musk's hesitation over buying the platform. It is also facing legal action over alleged unpaid rent on its London office, which is owned by King Charles III's Crown Estate.
Private Jet Services and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.