Class Action Suit Against Showtime Alleging Faulty Mayweather-McGregor PPV Transmission Headed To Arbitration

A Federal Court judge in the Southern District of New York recently granted Showtime's motion to compel arbitration in a putative class action brought by plaintiff Victor Mallh alleging issues with Showtime's online stream of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing match.

Judge Denise Cote ruled that the online agreement that viewers had to click their consent to before purchasing the bout on PPV, was "reasonably conspicuous and the plaintiff's click gave his unambiguous consent" to the form agreement to arbitrate and class action waiver contained in the Terms of Use (TOU).

Judge Cote also held that "[c]ourts around the country have recognized that an electronic click can suffice the acceptance of a contract . . . as long as the layout and language of the site give the user reasonable notice that a click will manifest assent to an agreement."  By clicking the "I agree" box, that indicated agreement with the TOU, the plaintiff assented to arbitration.

Judge Cote held that Mallh's action was stayed pending the outcome of the arbitration.

There are similar cases regarding the Mayweather-McGregor online stream that are stayed pending the outcome of this case.

See Judge Cote's order below:


See Showtime's Motion to Compel Arbitration or, in the Alternative, Dismiss the Action:

Mayweather Legal Update

Floyd Mayweather's team is known as the The Money Team (TMT) and of course, where there is money, you'll find litigation.  Currently, there are a number of matters pending involving Floyd Mayweather, either directly or indirectly.

Floyd Sr. gets sued for $20M by former publicist

Let's start with the latest involving Floyd's father, Floyd Mayweather, Sr.  As reported by Paul Gift in Forbes, Ann Barlow, a former publicist for Floyd Sr., is suing him for breach of contract stemming from a public relations and consulting services contract Sr. signed with her.  According to the Forbes article, in 2015, Sr. had sued Barlow over the same agreement, claiming that she had tricked him into signing it, when he really wanted help setting up a nonprofit foundation for sarcoidosis (which he is suffering from).  Sr. dropped the suit but Barlow is now suing him for breach and claiming over $20M in damages.

Showtime looking to consolidate Mayweather-McGregor Streaming Suits in NY

Showtime filed a motion to transfer and centralize eight lawsuits in five different federal districts regarding the loss of streaming services for the Mayweather-McGregor bout to the Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.  The suits allege that either Showtime or affiliate companies of the UFC which offered the Mayweather-McGregor PPV via streaming service, sold a defective product that prevented purchasers from watching the event.

See Showtime's motion below:



Mayweather Promotions files for Default Judgment in "Philthy Rich" trademark dispute

In August 2017, Mayweather Promotions, LLC ("MP") filed an opposition to rapper Phillip Anthony Beasley's attempt to trademark his nom de rap "Philthy Rich".  MP had previously registered the name of Floyd's record label "Philthy Rich Records" with the PTO.  Beasley was required to file an answer to the opposition by October 9, 2017.  Having failed to do so, MP moved for a default judgment before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ("TTAB").

See the default motion below:



Ticketmaster sues scalpers for using bots to buy tickets to events, incl., Mayweather-Pacquiao

Ticketmaster is claiming $10M in damages in a suit it brought against Prestige and other secondary ticket brokers for the use of "bots" that buy in bulk tickets available to the public.  The suit alleges the brokers then resell the tickets at a significant markup.  Ticketmaster alleges that the bots were able to circumvent the site's security features and restrictions on tickets per customer to do mass buys for many prominent events.  The suit alleges that the bots purchased the "majority of the tickets available through Ticketmaster" for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. 

See the complaint below:

Odds and Ends Post-Mayweather vs. McGregor

• Erik Magraken, at the excellent Combat Sports Law blog, made an interesting find on Floyd Mayweather's pre-fight medical questionnaire. Floyd apparently admitted using injections of Kenalog (an anti-inflammatory) in his hands at 5 a.m. on the day of the fight.  Magraken noted that although Kenalog is a banned in-competition substance according to WADA's prohibited list - the WADA (and USADA, the testing entity) definition of "in-competition" only prohibits ingestion within 12 hours of competition.  Thus, with the fight happening around 9 p.m. PST, Floyd was within the rules to have the injection (depending on how the injection was administered - read the post).

• Zach Arnold, at another great MMA site Fight Opinion, believes that "it is blatantly clear that Conor McGregor will continue fighting in both boxing and MMA."  Arnold also reported that Dana White was "non-committal" about whether WME-IMG may be willing to give McGregor a percentage interest in the UFC in order to keep him in the fold.  Arnold also quoted MMA legend Randy Couture as saying that this fight highlighted the financial issues MMA fighters face vis-a-vis boxing. Couture predicted that more MMA fighters will crossover to boxing in order to reap the sponsorship and PPV upside opportunities that are currently not present in the UFC.

• Though Dana White was initially spewing about the number of PPV buys being above 6.5 million, according to ESPN, it appears the more realistic number is likely to land between 4 and 5 million buys.  Thus, it may not even break the previous PPV buy record set by Mayweather-Pacquiao at 4.6 million buys.