Fox News has filed a motion to dismiss the anti-trust lawsuit filed by Newsmax.
In September, Newsmax filed the lawsuit in Florida, accusing Fox News of maintaining a monopoly in the right-leaning pay television news market and systematically blocking competitors.
Newsmax’s complaint alleged that Fox leveraged its dominance to coerce distributors into restrictive agreements that exclude or marginalize rival channels. The lawsuit detailed a range of exclusionary tactics, including “no-carry” provisions that tie access to Fox News with restrictions on carrying competing news networks, financial penalties that require distributors to carry low-demand Fox channels if they also carry Newsmax, and confidential drag-down clauses that penalize the promotion of Newsmax in basic packages.
Roughly 48 hours after the lawsuit was filed, the case was dismissed by U.S. District Jude Aileen Cannon for what was labeled as duplicative causes of action.
Newsmax subsequently re-filed the case in Wisconsin. The lawsuit set off a war of words between the two entities. “Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers,” a Fox News spokesperson told Barrett Media at the time of the filing.
In response, the cable channel founded by Chris Ruddy retorted by stating, “If Newsmax was such a ratings failure, why has FOX spent so much time, energy, and resources to suppress us, block us, and denigrate us?” a network spokesperson shared. “The answer is obvious. Also, please note that FOX in its statement does not deny any of our serious allegations.”
On Tuesday, Fox News lawyers moved to dismiss the case in Wisconsin. They argued that the lawsuit was meritless.
“While Newsmax is obviously frustrated that achieving comparable distribution has not translated into comparable popularity, that does not give rise to an antitrust claim,” the lawyers claimed.
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