NHL Broadcast Antitrust Class Action Settlement Gets Initial OK

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Early this week, a settlement agreement in the antitrust litigation accusing the National Hockey League of monopolizing sporting broadcasts was preliminarily approved by a New York federal judge.

In the settlement agreement reached in June of this year, the NHL agreed to allow subscribers to watch out-of-market hockey games for less and charge less for team-specific subscription packages as well.

The settlement agreement was struck after partial certification of a class of subscribers was granted, but the plaintiffs’ method for calculating damages was rejected by U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin. The hockey league did not agree to make any additional fundamental changes to the prime issue in the NHL class action lawsuit, which is the so-called territorial exclusivity.

According to the preliminary approval issued by the judge this week, the NHL will offer cheaper, unbundled and team-specific subscription packages to TV subscribers in the class action lawsuit. Judge Scheindlin also approved the parties’ plan for giving notice to the class. A fairness hearing was set for Aug. 31.

This settlement, once finally approved, will end three years of litigation. The original application claimed that the NHL inflated the prices of game packages, but viewers were not given much choice as to what they could watch in their regions. The class action lawsuit also alleged that the NHL entered into shady deals with cable and satellite television providers to stop completing broadcasts. According to the class action lawsuit, the NHL’s broadcasting territories created local monopolies for each of its clubs and its television partners.

More information about the NHL broadcast class action settlement was not immediately available. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

The lead plaintiffs are represented by Edward A. Diver, Howard I. Langer and Peter E. Leckman of Langer Grogan & Diver PC, Michael Morris Buchman and John A. Ioannou of Motley Rice LLC, Kevin M. Costello and Gary E. Klein of Klein Kavanagh Costello LLP, Marc I. Gross and Adam G. Kurtz of Pomerantz LLP, Robert LaRocca of Kohn Swift & Graf PC, Michael J. Boni and Joshua D. Snyder of Boni & Zack LLC, Robert LaRocca of Kohn Swift & Graf PC, and J. Douglas Richards and Jeffrey Dubner of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.

The NHL Class Action Lawsuit is Thomas Laumann, et al. v. National Hockey League, et al., Case No. 1:12-cv-01817, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.