update December 23, 2014 – yesterday a second suit has now been filed making similar allegations against Zuffa. The second suit was filed by Luis Vazquez as well as Dennis Hallman as well as likewise seeks class action status. The Court filing can be discovered here: Vazquez as well as Hallman v. Zuffa Complaint
Update December 24, 2014 – Today Brandon Vera as well as Pablo Garza filed a third suggested class action.
Update February 5, 2015 – Today a fourth suggested class action as filed by Mac Danzig as well as Gabe Ruediger.
Update March 21, 2015 – Today Kyle Kingsbury as well as Darren Uyenoyama filed a fifth suggested class action against Zuffa.
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Today Cung Le, Nathan Quarry as well as Jon Fitch filed a suit against the UFC alleging anti-competitive practices. The suit was filed in us federal Court as well as seeks class action status. I have acquired a copy of the filed grievance as well as it can be discovered Camiseta Yokohama F. Marinos here: Le v. Zuffa Anti count on class action Complaint
I’ve evaluated this as well as right here are my preliminary thoughts –
1. The lawyers included are possibly as essential as the fighters named. The team of lawyers include class action as well as anti-trust suit specialists who have taken on high profile defendants before such as Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe Systems, Pixar, Lucasfilm. The concept of staring Zuffa down in a drawn out, costly legal battle will not be a barrier to this legal team. (You can click right here to checked out the Biography of the Plaintiffs as well as Lawyers included in the suit)
2. There are three named Plaintiffs however this listing will definitely grow as this litigation continues to get press. Whether or not other fighters come ahead the insurance claim seeks to be licensed as a class action as well as with the Courts consent will represent two broad classes. A “Bout” class which is defined as follows:
All persons who competed in one or much more online expert UFC promoted
MMA bouts taking location or broadcast in the United States
during the class Period. The Bout Camiseta Selección de fútbol de España class excludes all persons who are not
residents or citizens of the united states unless the UFC paid such
persons for contending in a bout fought in the United States.
and a “Identity” class which is defined as follows:
Each as well as every UFC competitor whose identity was expropriated or
exploited by the UFC, including in UFC Licensed product and/or
UFC marketing Materials, during the class period in the United States.
3. The suit labels the UFC as a monopoly as well as monopsony of MMA. The suit is smart as well as does not insurance claim that the UFC enjoys monopoly as well as monopsony power over all MMA, rather only over “Elite Professional MMA“. The suit goes on to acknowledge that there are other players in the market however only the UFC is “elite” as well as that they have no competition, either as the purchaser of MMA services or the vendor of the MMA product to the public at this level.
4. The suit paints a damaging photo of the UFC alleging they acquired their market setting with a series of anti-competitive methods as well as have secured roughly 90% of the worldwide share of all MMA revenue. The suit alleges that fighters are only paid 10-17% of overall UFC incomes produced from Bouts.
5. The alleged anti-competitive methods include
artificially decreasing payment for elite expert MMA fighters
tying down their roster to long term special contracts with bit gain access to to true totally free agency
further tying down their many valued fighters with a “champion’s clause”
artificially suppressing open market bidding with “right of very first offer” as well as “right to match” clauses
preventing fighters from economically benefiting from their reputations by acquiring identity Rights in perpetuity
imposing marketing obligations on their fighters without any extra compensation
obtaining the rights of retired fighters in perpetuity
tolling provisions which prolong competitor contracts during periods of injury as well as retirement
blocking sponsors from working with fighters with a “sponsorship as well as endorsement clause”
eliminating actual or prospective rivals
relegating all staying MMA promoters to ‘minor league’ status
adding contractual ‘unilateral demotion in pay’ clauses
unfairly threaten, intimidate as well as retaliate against MMA fighters who work with or for would be rivals
Using special contracts with fight venues as well as sponsors that “impair as well as foreclose would be rival MMA promoters”
6. The Camiseta VfL Wolfsburg suit seeks to prevent option of legislation as well as arbitration clauses in Zuffa competitor contracts by arguing that the suit is not seeking to enforce any type of contractual rights, however rather that the contracts, taken as a whole, “form part of the UFC’s anticompetitive plan to impair actual or prospectivnull
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