ESPN files motion to intervene in WWE PLE class action lawsuit
ESPN is attempting to enter a class-action lawsuit filed against WWE.
Brandon Thurston first reported on Friday that the sports network filmed a memorandum asking the court to let them intervene in the lawsuit that was filed back in January. That suit, brought on by two consumers, accused WWE of deceptive marketing by advertising that ESPN subscribers would have access to premium live events without an additional fee. When filed, WWE was named as a defendant but not ESPN.
“Plaintiffs did not name ESPN as a defendant, apparently to get around the arbitration clause in the subscriber agreement,” Thurston wrote.
With their filing, ESPN is asking the court to move the lawsuit to arbitration, which is is part of parent company Disney’s subscriber agreement.
When the deal was first announced, ESPN said at the time that they eventually expected to sign deals with all cable and streaming providers that would allow consumers to obtain ESPN Unlimited at no additional cost. But as of this writing, that is still not the case as consumers who don’t have a provider with Unlimited must pay $30 a month for it.
Plaintiffs in the case are looking to represent any customers based in the United States who were existing ESPN subscribers between August 6 and prior to WWE’s Wrestlepalooza PLE on September 20 as well as those who paid for the service in that timeframe. Those who subscribe to Hulu + Live, Spectrum, Verizon FIOS, DirectTV, and Fubo TV do not apply since those subscribers were able to get access to the service for free in that timeframe.
Bryan Rose is an editor from California that has been covering professional wrestling for well over a decade. He officially joined F4WOnline as an editor in 2017.