Court issues Order on UFC Subpoena to Bellator

The Court in the UFC Antitrust case has issued its order with respect to the June 1, 2017 hearing.

Plaintiffs and Defendants submitted Proposed Orders but the Court decided to draft its own version.  Officially, the Court denied Bellator’s Motion to Quash the UFC Subpoena and the UFC’s Motion to Compel Documents but granted Bellator’s Motion to Modify the Subpoenas.

The Court ordered that Bellator will have until July 5, 2017 to produce the documents identified in the order and “all documents responsive to the subpoenas served by both parties on which agreements were reached during the meet and confer process.”

Notably, the Court requires that Bellator produce the following documents:

1. A random sample of at least 20 percent of fighters under contract with Bellator between January 1, 2010 and the present. This will include any “amendments, modifications, side letters, or extensions that may exist with respect to any contract that is produced…”
2. Bellator will produced “Anonymized contracts” with a unique identifier although identifying information “may be redacted.”
3. The contracts “shall include the fighter’s gender, weight class, number of fights during term of agreements and any compensation to be paid.
4. The Court limited and modified Bellator’s request for production to the following
   1. A list of all MMA events it promoted or co-promoted from January 1, 2010 through the present.
   2. An unaudited profit and loss statement through the quarter ending March 31, 2017 which will include Revenue, Expenses, Operating Income and Net Income.

Order on Motion to Quash and Motion to Compel 06.13.17 by JASONCRUZ206 on Scribd

Payout Perspective:

Despite the Court clarifying the order, expect the parties and Bellator to squabble over the turning over of the documents.  For Bellator, the production of documents is bad, but it could have been worse.  Still, this is an additional expense for the company as it will need to look at all of the documents, determine responsiveness and redact identifiable information and then produce them.  The unaudited profit and loss statement through March 31, 2017 seems to be the hardest business item the company must give up since the UFC and Plaintiffs’ attorneys will have a chance to see their raw data.