The WGA was effectively ousted from its own lawsuit by the ruling.
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 battle, which shifted into high gear last April when the WGA filed litigation and ordered writers to fire their agents en masse, has infuriated the agencies.
“These guys have damaged the industry, our clients, our relationships with writers … for what?,” a senior industry source told The Hollywood Reporter. “A year later and finally a judge weighs in.”
The defeat comes on the heels of another battle lost, this one against employers: in a dispute over health coverage, the WGA rejected its own proposed negotiations over its expiring TV/theatrical basic agreement and told the head of the studio alliance, “You people are despicable.” That led the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to sideline the writers and instead commence negotiations Monday with SAG-AFTRA, whose contract doesn’t expire until June 30, well after the Friday (May 1) end date on the writers’ agreement.
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.
The agencies – WME, CAA and UTA – and the WGA did not immediately provide comment.
More to come.
