TKO confirms judge denied motion for preliminary approval of UFC settlement

According to a regulatory filing, as previously disclosred, TKO Operating Company said it is party to several substantially similar class-action lawsuits filed against it by former UFC athletes, alleging violations of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Five related class-action lawsuits filed between December 2014 and March 2015 were consolidated into a single action in June 2015, captioned Le et al. v. Zuffa, LLC, No. 2:15-cv-1045-RFB-BNW, and an additional lawsuit, captioned Johnson et al. v. Zuffa, LLC et al., No. 2:21-cv-1189-RFB-BNW, was filed in 2021. On July 30, 2024, following the court’s hearings on the parties’ submission to approve their agreement to settle all claims asserted in both class action lawsuits for an aggregate amount of $335M payable by the company and its subsidiaries in installments over an agreed-upon period of time, the court issued its ruling and denied the motion for preliminary approval of the settlement agreement. The court has not issued an opinion explaining its reasoning at this time, but the court has scheduled a status conference for August 19, 2024 and a new tentative trial date for Le for October 28, 2024. The company is evaluating all of its options, including, without limitation, an appeal, and has also initiated discussions with plaintiffs’ counsel, who have expressed a willingness to engage in separate settlement discussions for the Le and Johnson cases. A motion to dismiss the complaint in Johnson remains pending and no trial date has been set.