An anticompetitive lawsuit has been filed by FuboTV against Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. and others

According to court documents, the live TV streaming platform FuboTV filed a civil lawsuit against Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, claiming that the media companies have been involved in anticompetitive practices for years and are still doing so with the combined sports streaming app they plan to release later this year.

ESPN and Hulu are also listed as defendants in the action, which was submitted to a federal court in the Southern District of New York.

FuboTV, which has been in working since 2015, claims in the lawsuit that the companies ran a campaign that hurt FuboTV and its consumers by restricting competition in the US sports-focused streaming market. FuboTV also claims that the companies’ most recent joint venture will keep restricting competition. This month, Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery revealed their plans to work together to create a direct-to-consumer streaming app where users will be able to pay for access to any sport that the companies broadcast on their 14 total linear channels.

The case filed by FuboTV claims that “instead of competition, Defendants have chosen collusion—giving their own cartel, and no one else, the ability to market and sell a live-sports-centric package.” By doing this, they have made sure that their united company won’t face any real competition. They are currently harming American consumers and competition, and they threaten to do so in the future.

According to FuboTV, the firms have raised licensing fees over market rates and made it accept bundling restrictions in order for it to be permitted to broadcast specific material, which has resulted in increased prices for customers. According to FuboTV’s lawsuit, the actions of the corporations were intended to restrict Fubo’s expansion and business.

FuboTV claims in the lawsuit that by forming the joint venture, Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery will “freeze-out” streaming competitors and provide them with incentives not to give premium content to Fubo and others.

In order to stop the joint venture from running and to mandate that the three companies dissolve the company, Fubo requests a permanent injunction from the court.

The complaint claimed that “Defendants have extracted billions of dollars in supra-competitive profits from distributors and consumers for decades by using their iron grip on sports content.”

“Bundling” their commercially vital sports programming with other, less attractive content allowed the defendants to gain a large portion of these earnings, compelling sports fans to subscribe to channels they didn’t want or need in order to view the defendants’ sports content.”

When the three corporations announced their combined venture, it shook the sports broadcasting industry. The rights to national broadcasts of the NBA and NHL, as well as a large number of NFL, MLB, and NCAA Tournament events, are jointly held by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery. According to FuboTV, the companies’ combined use of a single streaming app breaks antitrust regulations.