Since this is a topic not everyone is interested in we have decided to create this megathread and will be removing individual threads until the story loses steam.
Brent Brookhouse and John S. Nash of BloodyElbow.com broke the story on the 13th of December.
Article: Fighters to sue UFC for $100s of millions in class action | rMMA Thread: Link
Bloody Elbow Live Updates | MMAMania Live Updates | CagePotato Live Updates
Lawsuit from Cohen Millstein Link PDF
Cung Le, et al. v. Zuffa, LLC conference call audio Link
Named Plantiffs: Cung Le, Jon Fitch and Nate Quarry
Details of the case
Monopoly and its legal cousin, monopsony, are the terms most frequently used in the class-action lawsuit when describing the UFC and its behavior in the marketplace. Here are some key allegations against the UFC from the document:
- Engaged in an “anticompetitive scheme” to “maintain and enhance” its monopoly on promoting MMA events and held “monopsony power” in the marketplace for fighters.
- Enforced its monopoly by signing fighters to long-term exclusive contracts “and other exclusionary and anticompetitive acts.”
- Exerted control over fighters by leveraging potential title bouts.
- Used its monopoly and monopsony power to artificially “suppress compensation” for UFC fighters and “to expropriate UFC Fighters’ identities and likenesses inappropriately.
- Required fighter sponsors to work exclusively with the UFC and refused to contract with a sponsor that worked with a rival MMA promoter.
- Created and held a dominant position in the business by purchasing competitors or driving them out of business by raising costs on acquiring talent and resources.
- Refused to co-promote with other potential promoters in an effort to increase control on fighters.
- Left the MMA marketplace with “fringe competitors,” which, “as a general matter, do not and cannot successfully compete directly with the UFC — or entities that have essentially been conscripted by the UFC … into acting as the UFC’s ‘minor leagues,’ developing talent for the UFC but not competing directly with it.”
- “Publicly touted” its success in stifling competition.
- Forced major venues where fights are held to contract exclusively with the promotion.