ATP Turned Down In Try For Two Phases In German Tourney Suit
By Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal
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Judge Denies ATP's Effort To Split
Hamburg Suit Into Two Separate Trials |
The ATP World Tour suffered a blow in the landmark legal case brought by one of its tournaments when a Delaware district court judge ruled the trial would include a damages phase. The ATP had moved to keep damages out of the current case. The organizers of the ATP's German event is suing the group for $76.6M because the tourney will be relegated to a lower class of events as part of a new calendar for men's tennis next year. The trial could determine how far a league or governing body can go in stripping members of commercial rights for the overall good of the sport. The ATP had moved to have two separate trials, one to determine if its calendar violated antitrust laws, and then if found guilty, the damages. The ATP reasoned because the changes had not occurred yet, if the group lost, it could just change the calendar and thus avoid any damages. But the Hamburg, Germany, event has argued damages have already occurred. While Judge Gregory Sleet did not rule on this question, he rejected the ATP's arguments that it would be more efficient to have two trials. "Indeed, bifurcation could lead to inefficiencies resulting from duplicative pretrial and trial proceedings," Sleet wrote yesterday in his decision. Bifurcation refers to the formal legal request of splitting the case into two. The case is scheduled to go to trial July 21 in Delaware, though the ATP had three new board members elected last week who may push the group to settle beforehand.
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