The UFC faced a class-action lawsuit in 2014 when a number of fighters made allegations that the promotion had violated anti-trust laws. The case is still ongoing, however, and the UFC’s biggest rival is now involved
Reports confirm that Bellator has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court (Central District of California) which will effectively block subpoenas from the UFC. The subpoenas are for the purpose of releasing “confidential” documents pertaining to fighters’ contracts, and details of negotiations.
Cung Le, Nate Quarry, Jon Fitch are among names suing the UFC for alleged violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the UFC want to obtain information which will assist their defence. Bellator’s lawsuit will block this attempt, according to The Sporting News.
Bellator president Scott Coker submitted an eight-page declaration, which insists that Bellator contracts and negotiations are not public and details are only known to a “very limited group of senior executives and the legal department.” The information is “highly confidential,” according to Coker’s words.
Any insistence in providing such information would “undermine Bellator’s bargaining leverage and ability to attract and retain the best athletes necessary to build a successful promotion,” Coker wrote, and also argued that while his rivals would have their information, Bellator would not have the same information from the UFC:
“For example, if individual athlete contract information were provided Bellator’s competitors, they would be able to anticipate Bellator’s recruitment strategics, outflanking its ability to sign the best fighters, anticipating its strategics in each respective weight class and geographic market, and compromising its strategic plans to develop the best overall promotion,” Coker wrote. … “Armed with Bellator’s information, a dominant market player such as UFC could easily allocate its resources to one-up Bellator on critical deals, counter-program Bellator, and appropriate its business strategies, either to obstruct and stifle Bellator’s initiatives or to exploit its weaknesses.”
Coker even claimed that the rival promotion’s officials would “gain an advantage” over the promotion with this information:
“UFC is an aggressive and ambitious enterprise, and I believe that if UFC were able to gain an advantage against Bellator by receiving Bellator’s confidential information or even simply leveraging the disadvantage caused by disclosure of Bellator’s confidential information to athletes and others, it would certainly do so,” Coker wrote.
