How Allopneus Protected Its Competitive Edge, Stopped Scraping, & Reduced Server Costs

The challenge: Fighting unfair competition from overwhelming bot traffic

As a 100% Michelin-owned online tire retailer, Allopneus was under increasing threat from scraper bots operated by competitors. The French company became aware of this when they saw that certain sites were scraping their prices and displaying them alongside their own in real time, sometimes inaccurately.

Guillaume Coté Baladou, Web Infrastructure Architect at Allopneus, explains: “They’d display our prices when it suited them but hide them when it didn’t. We realized this was affecting our business because sometimes our prices were misrepresented. We couldn’t allow this unfair competition to take place”.

In addition to disclosing important competitive information, the scraping bots were consuming a huge amount of bandwidth—up to 50% of Allopneus’s traffic— placing excessive demands on server resources, particularly during peak sales periods. “The bots were also hitting obsolete pages, creating an unnecessary load on the server,” Guillaume adds.

Initially, Allopneus tested another anti-bot solution to address the issue. However, they soon found it lacked the precision they needed. “It could detect bots, but the rules were very basic. We couldn’t effectively differentiate legitimate traffic from bots,” Guillaume says.

Given these limitations, the company sought a solution with advanced protection against bots that would integrate seamlessly with its infrastructure.

The solution: Advanced bot mitigation with ready-made Cloudflare integration

That’s where DataDome came in. As part of the Michelin Group, Allopneus must comply with strict cybersecurity standards, and was therefore looking for a compliant supplier with a proven track record. “What we needed most was the ability to observe and control bot traffic,” Guillaume recalls. Additionally, Allopneus couldn’t afford to dedicate a large team to bot management, so they were looking for an autonomous solution that needed minimal oversight. 

DataDome’s customizable rules provided the flexibility Allopneus needed. “Other security providers often work on the basis of a rating system and a few KPIs, but that’s not enough information to challenge users with a CAPTCHA,” explains Guillaume.

With DataDome, Allopneus has been able to refine the rules to whitelist known legitimate traffic—such as search engine bots or internal marketing scraping tools—and stop the bad bots. “DataDome allows us to say, ‘This is a type of traffic we know and trust, and this is what we want to block.’ It’s a much more advanced solution.”

Guillaume was also counting on DataDome’s seamless integration with Cloudflare Workers, as all their traffic passes through the CDN and WAF. By leveraging Allopneus’s existing configuration, DataDome avoided adding latency or complexity to the infrastructure. “The integration was simple—just a few clicks and configurations. It didn’t add to our workload or compromise our performance,” explains Guillaume.

The results: Reduced web scraping, stabilized traffic, & safeguarded resources

One of the most significant results was the dramatic decline in web scraping by bad bots. Competitors attempting to scrape Allopneus pricing data are now automatically flagged and blocked by the DataDome platform, protecting the brand’s revenue and reputation.

Furthermore, real-time protection greatly spares server resources, as DataDome allows traffic to be distributed more evenly. Unwanted bot-driven traffic could consume up to 50% of Allopneus’ total traffic, leading to unpredictable spikes in server load and frequent alerts for the team.

Guillaume explains: “We used to experience unexpected traffic peaks, especially during peak seasons like winter, when people change their tires. These peaks often triggered alerts and strained our resources. With DataDome, we have stabilized our traffic and significantly reduced server downtime.”

Finally, DataDome provides a solid framework for dealing with malicious traffic, making it a true ally of cybersecurity. Guillaume is now a fervent advocate of the solution within the Michelin Group. He actively shares Allopneus’ success in fighting bots, encouraging other teams to adopt the technology.

“We presented our implementation and results internally, showing how DataDome helps us effectively analyze bot traffic. This technology is a game-changer for e-commerce companies like ours, and I think it can bring similar value to other Michelin subsidiaries,” he says.