Hearst, Tribune, Sinclair Among Broadcast Cos. Facing More Class Action Litigation Over Alleged Collusion

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A Macon, Georgia, law firm has filed the latest proposed antitrust class action lawsuit to allege a group of media companies colluded to artificially inflate the price of buying local television advertisements. Filed in Illinois, the 25-page complaint names as defendants: 

As of 2016, the complaint states, the above defendants, with the exception of Hearst, collectively owned, operated or serviced 443 television stations nationwide. The stations’ most vital source of revenue, the case continues, came from the sale of commercial time. 

From the complaint:

“Since at least January 1, 2014, [the defendants] unlawfully coordinated their efforts to artificially inflate prices for television commercials. Rather than lawfully vying for advertisers through price competition, [the defendants] and their co-conspirators instead conspired to fix prices by sharing proprietary information, thereby reducing competition in the market.”

Front and center in the lawsuit is the U.S. Department of Justice investigation into a now-squashed merger of Tribune Media Company and Sinclair Broadcast Group, with the former having just recently filed a lawsuit of its own against the latter alleging Sinclair’s “unnecessarily aggressive and protracted negotiations with the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission” was what killed the deal. Where Sinclair’s and Tribune’s co-defendants come in, the lawsuit says, is that the Justice Department’s investigation is centered on whether numerous stations’ ad sales teams conspired to inflate TV commercial airtime rates.