AAI Asks DOJ to Scrutinize Anticompetitive Litigation Settlement in FuboTv v. Disney

On January 9, 2025, AAI submitted a letter to the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice requesting that it investigate the recently announced settlement in FuboTv, Inc. et al. v. The Walt Disney Company, et al., No. 24-2210 (2d Cir. 2024), as well as the joint venture at issue in the underlying litigation.

Deep concerns about the threats to competition in live U.S. sports streaming led AAI to join with several other consumer advocacy and public interest organizations to file an amicus brief in support of Fubo’s suit to block Venu, a sports streaming joint venture of Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery. After evaluating Fubo’s antitrust claims, the District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction to block Venu, agreeing with Fubo that the joint venture was likely to substantially lessen competition and cause irreparable harm by reducing choice and incentives to innovate and increasing the risk that the defendants would engage in anticompetitive collusion.

On January 6, the parties announced a settlement in which Walt Disney Company agreed to purchase 70 percent of Fubo and give it $300 million in settlement payments and loan commitments, paving the way for the anticompetitive joint venture to proceed. AAI’s letter expresses concern that the settlement of the Fubo suit does not appear to address any of the concerns raised by the district court or those expressed by the Antitrust Division, which also filed an amicus brief in support of Fubo. The settlements allows a joint venture to proceed that a federal district court judge has already found likely to be illegal. Worse still, under the guise of “strengthening” Fubo, the agreed terms instead eliminate Fubo as an independent competitor.

The letter urges the DOJ to step up to represent the interests of the millions of affected consumers left unprotected by the Fubo settlement. It asks the DOJ to initiate an investigation of all the terms of the settlement, including Disney’s proposed purchase of a 70% stake in Fubo, and the Venu joint venture. It also urges the DOJ take any actions necessary to ensure effective remedies to any harms to competition in live U.S. sports broadcasting that its investigation reveals. That includes potentially blocking in their entirety both Disney’s acquisition of Fubo and the Venu joint venture.

Read the full letter here: AAI Letter to DOJ in FuboTv v. Disney