UFC to pay $375 million in antitrust lawsuit settlement
Judge Richard Boulware issued a preliminary approval of the settlement agreement in the first UFC antitrust lawsuit in Nevada on Tuesday.
New terms of settlement will see the plaintiffs (UFC) pay $375 million to settle the antitrust lawsuit. The actual payout to fighters has not yet been disclosed.
Former UFC fighters such as Cung Le and Nate Quarry, and others first filed the complaint in 2014, which argued that the UFC engaged “in a scheme to acquire and maintain monopsony power in the market for elite professional MMA fighter services.”
According to a report from MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin, the fighters claimed UFC achieved that goal through three key elements: Exclusive contracts, coercion, and acquisitions that eliminated potential competitors.
“An original settlement agreement was reached back in March for $335 million. That figure was supposed to settle both this antitrust lawsuits and a second suit that covered fighters from 2017 to present day; however, the judge denied that settlement agreement after previously stating in court that the agreed upon payout seemed low and that the fighters represented in the second lawsuit could object to arbitration and class-action waiver clauses in existing contracts.
“A trial date for this lawsuit was set but both the plaintiffs and defendants in the case continued to work towards a potential settlement before reaching an agreement on the $375 million payout to settle the original case.”
“The $375 million all cash recovery provides a swift and significant payment to the Class against the delay, costs, and risks of a trial and appeals. As discussed above, Plaintiffs had initially proposed to allocate 75% of the Prior Settlement to the Le Class (75% of $335 million is $251.25 million), and thus this Settlement would increase the amount going to the Le Class by $123.75 million. Plaintiffs subsequently proposed to allocate 90% of the Prior Settlement to the Le Class (90% of $335 million is $301.5 million), and in that light, this Settlement involves $73.5 million more for the Le Class.
“Under the Settlement, Le Class members would recover (on average), after all fees and costs are deducted, $250,000. Thirty-five Class members would net over $1 million; nearly 100 fighters would net over $500,000; more than 200 fighters would recover over $250,000; over 500 fighters would net in excess of $100,000; and nearly 800 would recover over $50,000. By any reasonable measure, the Settlement, if approved, would put “life changing” cash into the hands of the families of several hundred fighters now.”
