The antitrust lawsuit against Disney will go to court

Disney’s legal teams are quite busy these days and now have to deal with yet another antitrust case involving carriage fees for ESPN.

Disney’s lawyers are now learning the ins and outs of the Sherman Act in some detail. The 1890 law, which aims to curb antitrust actions, was invoked in a second case against the entertainment giant, which is currently before the courts, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The lawsuit was first filed by YouTube TV subscribers in 2022 and alleged that Disney’s practice of requiring ESPN to be included in basic live TV packages was anticompetitive, and when combined with its ownership of Hulu + Live TV, the practice caused price increases across the virtual multichannel video programming distribution (vMVPD) world.

Key details: The lawsuit seeks to represent approximately 5 million YouTube TV customers. Plaintiffs are barred from seeking damages under federal antitrust charges.