A fan who sued Showtime over technical difficulties concerning “The Money Fight” is stuck in the fine print.
A federal judge has ordered to arbitration a class-action lawsuit over the Aug. 26 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, granting a motion filed by Showtime. The premium cable channel was hit with multiple class-action lawsuits because of the event, which encountered widespread delays and outages due to high demand.
Denise Cote, a U.S. District Judge in the Southern District of New York, argued the plaintiff, Victor Mallh, agreed to resolve disputes outside the courtroom when he agreed to Showtime’s terms of service before buying the event, which cost $99.95 to purchase in high definition via online and broadcast pay-per-view. Cote was unconvinced by claims from Mallh’s attorneys that Showtime didn’t properly notify fans of their rights.
“Because notice of the arbitration clause and class-action waiver was reasonably conspicuous and Mallh unambiguously manifested assent, Showtime’s motion to compel arbitration is granted,” she wrote.
Mallh is one of several fight fans suing Showtime, claiming the network promoted and made money from the event despite delivering a faulty product. One suit named UFC corporate parent Zuffa and William Morris Endeavor (WME) as co-defendants. Several suits claim the class-action damages are in excess of $75,000 and “the amount in controversy” is over $5 million.
Shortly after the first suit was filed, Showtime told MMAjunkie it had received a “a very limited number of complaints” and offered a refund to any of its customers who’d couldn’t watch the event. UFC President Dana White also promised refunds to those who purchased the event on UFC Fight Pass and ran into trouble as the online digital network was overwhelmed by traffic.
White later claimed the spectacle showdown between UFC lightweight champ McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC, 0-1 boxing) and boxing king Mayweather (50-0 boxing) set a record for the most lucrative pay-per-view event in history, drawing 6.7 million worldwide buys to beat Mayweather’s “Fight of the Century” against Manny Pacquiao.
For complete coverage of “The Money Fight,” check out the UFC Events section of the site.
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