New: Writers Guild suffers big loss as court dismisses almost all its claims against agencies
More than three months after a January 24 hearing, a Los Angeles federal judge on Monday dismissed virtually all of the Writers Guild of America’s claims against the three largest talent agencies, leaving the union with only a state antitrust claim and a related, essentially procedural claim.
The hardest hitting claims – for federal price fixing and racketeering – were dismissed with prejudice, meaning that the guild cannot refile them. Many of the dismissals were based on lack of standing, i.e., that the proper party for the claims are individual members, not the guild. But Judge Andre Birotte flatly disagreed with the WGA’s contention that packaging fees, an open and common agency practice, amount to bribes, kickbacks or racketeering activity.
The guild has 14 days to attempt to resurrect some of its claims by amending its complaint. Meanwhile, most of the claims by seven individual writers survived the judge’s scrutiny. But that is thin gruel for a lawsuit that the guild hoped would knock packaging fees into an ashcan.
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