Zuffa has filed Motions to Exclude plaintiffs experts Hal Singer, Andrew Zimbalist and Guy Davis. Although Judge Boulware previously denied these motions, Zuffa has brought them again as we head to trial coming in April.
We look at Zuffa’s motion to exclude Hal Singer first. Zuffa argues that Dr. Singer’s model does not measure fighter pay in a reliable way.
Zuffa notes that its expert, Prof. Topel found inconsistencies with Dr. Singer’s regression analysis.
In attacking Dr. Singer’s credibility as an expert, Zuffa points to the recent in In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation which concluded on Tuesday with a victory for Epic Games. In that case, the Court excluded Dr. Singer’s economic opinion at the merits stage, despite relying on them for class-certification purposes.
Zuffa also pointed to other cases in which Dr. Singer’s opinion were excluded due to “untenable assumptions” and/or lacking “scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge.”
Zuffa argues that the multivariate regression analysis which Dr. Singer was sound, but how used by Dr. Singer was not correct. Citing the Google case, Zuffa stated that, [R]egression may be excluded when they are used to draw inferences that the regressions are not “validate[d]” to support, or when they are based on an assumption that “is not factually accurate” or on a “misconception.” Zuffa points to methodological flaws in Dr. Singer’s analysis. Zuffa argues that the model does not measure actual compensation, when Dr. Singer’s model presented no impact when comparing the challenged conduct on actual compensation, no court has accepted the wage share methodology. Zuffa also brings up the detail that Dr. Singer relied on a falsified journal to come up with his findings.
The motion also goes deeper into Dr. Singer’s findings which relate to how he came to his conclusion that the plaintiffs were harmed due to anticompetitive conduct.
As with the other two experts, plaintiffs will have a chance to oppose the motion and likely rely on the previous denials to exclude them as evidence that this issues has already been decided.
Payout Perspective:
It is hard to believe that Judge Boulware would side with Zuffa again at this stage although we now look at the merits of the report. Still, the challenge of scientific evidence in an expert report is subjective and dependent the trier of fact (Judge Boulware). Could Boulware be swayed by the recent ruling in the Epic Games-Google case where that Judge excluded Dr. Singer’s expert report? We shall see.
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