[1123581321]

Maybe. A lot of freelancers and agencies have amateur or no contracts.

A neutral service suspended message or no response from the server is more defendable if the client goes after you. If you actively communicate on their website, it could be argued you tried to cause reputational harm etc.

Even if you're right, provoking a legal response from a client is more than a lot of creatives and developers can handle, especially if the client is big enough to retain legal or staff a GC.

I suspect that things will turn out fine for this particular developer since the client seems small and the message is mostly innocuous.

[exe34]

if the company is big enough to have legal staff, said staff would probably have advised them to pay in the first place.

[1123581321]

You would think so! :)