Newsmax filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Fox News, claiming that the conservative news network has monopolized the conservative news market and abused its power.
In a lawsuit filed against Fox Corporation and Fox News Network, LLC in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, attorneys for Newsmax accused Fox News of “engaging in an extensive and unlawful campaign to block competition in the market for right-leaning pay television shows.”
Newsmax’s complaint accused Fox News of violating “Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1, 2; the Florida Antitrust Act, Fla. Stat. §§ 542.18, 542.19; and the Florida Deceptive & Unfair Trade Practices Act, Fla Stat. § 501. 204.”
Per Newsmax, the complaint accused Fox News of abusing “its dominance” in the conservative news market:
The complaint alleges that Fox has abused its dominance in the right-leaning pay TV news market for years by coercing distributors into unfair carriage agreements designed to exclude or marginalize competitors like Newsmax.
Fox News, described in the complaint as a “must-have” channel for distributors, leverages its market power to impose restrictions that harm consumers, stifle competition, and drive up costs across the pay TV ecosystem.
The complaint from Newsmax accuses Fox News of using “at least three anticompetitive means to exclude competing providers of right-leaning video content from the market.”
“First, Fox imposes explicit or tacit ‘no-carry’ provisions on distributors, conditioning access to its commercially critical content on distributors’ concession not to carry other right-leaning news channels like Newsmax and others,” the complaint says. “Second, it imposes financial penalties on distributors if they carry Newsmax or others by requiring the distributors to carry and pay high fees for Fox’s little-watched channels like Fox Business. Third, Fox inserts a suite of other contractual barriers into its carriage agreements intended to prevent Newsmax and others from competing. These tactics constitute unlawful restraints of trade and flow directly from Fox’s unlawful monopolization of the Right-leaning Pay TV News Market.”
“But for Fox’s anticompetitive behavior, Newsmax would have achieved greater pay TV distribution, seen its audience and ratings grow sooner, gained earlier ‘critical mass’ for major advertisers and become, overall, a more valuable media property,” the complaint continues.
Per Newsmax, “Under federal law, any damages awarded in this case will be trebled,” which could lead to Fox News facing “significant liability if Newsmax prevails.”
Fox News responded to the lawsuit by stating that “Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers,” the Washington Post reported.
