Sept. 3 (UPI) — Florida-based Newsmax Broadcasting accuses Fox News and its owner of anti-competitive behavior to monopolize “right-leaning” news in a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida names Fox Corp. and New News Network as defendants and accuses them of violating the Sherman Act, the Florida Antitrust Act and the Florida Deceptive & Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The “Fox Corporation has long engaged in an exclusionary scheme to increase and maintain its dominance in the market for U.S. right-leaning pay TV news, resulting in suppression of competition in that market that harms consumers, competition and Newsmax Broadcasting,” Newsmax says.
Fox News Network “operates the Fox News Channel — the cable news network with the highest viewership in the United States,” Newsmax officials argue.
“Fox’s control over this must-have news channel gives it significant market power and leverage to impose onerous demands on distributors of its content,” the federal lawsuit says.
Newsmax claims Fox News uses at least three anti-competitive tactics to thwart competition within its market niche.
The network allegedly requires cable and streaming providers to not carry other right-leaning news channels, such as Newsmax.
Newsmax also says the Fox Corp. “imposes financial penalties on distributors” if they carry Newsmax of others by requiring them to carry and pay “high fees” for “little-watched channels like Fox Business.”
The Fox Corp. also allegedly “inserts a suite of other contractual barriers” that prevent Newsmax and others from competing with Fox News, Newsmax says.
Newsmax seeks a court ruling that affirms Fox News engages in illegal anti-competitive behavior and a financial penalty that is equal to three times the amount of damages sustained by Newsmax, plus interest and legal costs.
Newsmax also seeks a permanent injunction “prohibiting Fox’s exclusionary agreements” and any future exclusionary acts.
Fox News Media officials denied engaging in any illegal and anti-competitive acts in a statement shared with UPI.
“Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers,” Fox News Media said.
Nielsen Media Research data shows Newsmax was carried by 84% of television news distribution services in August, while Fox News was carried by about 94%.
Newsmax’s distribution ranked ahead of CNBC, 75%, and slightly behind MSNBC, 86%, according to Nielsen.
CNN and NewsNation each were carried by 92% of cable and streaming television service providers.