Last week, a settlement report was provided to the Court in the settlement of the Cung Le-Zuffa antitrust lawsuit. The mandatory report provided an update on the distribution of the agreed upon $375 million settlement between the plaintiffs and defendants in the case.
Communications were sent out to members of the class identified in the Le lawsuit based on the time that the athletes participated in the UFC and how many fights they were involved in under the UFC promotion.
The report indicates that 1,121 Class Members were eligible to participate in the Settlement.
According to the court appointed settlement coordinator, it received 1,088 claims from members of the class. A footnote to the report indicated that it approved one claim that was submitted after the deadline. Members of the class had the opportunity to contest their “pre-determined Event Compensation and Number of Bouts information.” There were 37 athletes that contested the event compensation and/or number of bouts information. Of the 37, only 9 provided sufficient documentation to support an adjusted amount for their Event Compensation to be adjusted.
Of the $375M settlement, the report includes the interest earned from the settlement as well as deductions for attorneys fees, claims administrator fees, et al.
Payout Perspective:
Notably, 33 individuals that were members of the class did not apply to receive compensation. We see that the lawyers involved in the Le lawsuit were paid $126 million which would roughly be 30% of the gross settlement. Also, the settlement carves out the settlement for Nate Quarry which totaled $1.25M. You might recall Quarry’s fights occurred prior to the class period and he only had an intellectual property claim which was dismissed.
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