In this story there ' s some corruption too but what if it was a private company asking for an inhouse repair of their headquarter ' s serverThat change in context is not a problem because blackmail is blackmail and shouldn ' t depend on whether or not there was corruption right next to itWould using their business position for leverage still be the same as threatening to kill your familyIt wouldn ' t shock me . It is acceptable because it is to be expected of you to meet the market standard , and of them to choose their best option as a company . It is to be expected because they could have stopped their business with you at any moment for any reason if they wanted . Realistically . They could have chosen to use another service provider just because they were more competitive . Yet they didn ' t and now they are asking you to go out of your way to make them stay , or at least that ' s what they ' re saying and if you don ' t believe them then you can tell them to fuck right offYou can call it blackmail and make it fall in the same group than murder threats for money , or you can say business leverage . Both are blackmail , the difference is that you don ' t say that parenthood is an STD that one ' s a joke or that police auctions are concealment .