Newsmax files second antitrust lawsuit against Fox News
Share this @internewscast.com

Inset: Judge Aileen Cannon (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida). Background, left to right: A display shows a Newsmax logo on the day of their IPO on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) and The Fox News logo is displayed outside Fox News Headquarters in New York, April 12, 2023 (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura).

Just under two weeks after a federal judge in Florida dismissed Newsmax’s lawsuit against Fox News Network for alleged illegal “monopolization” in the “right-leaning pay TV” sector, Newsmax initiated a very similar lawsuit against the Rupert Murdoch-founded network, this time in Wisconsin.

The latest complaint was submitted shortly after Newsmax notified U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that the Florida case against Fox News was being formally withdrawn.

The complaint filed on Thursday in the Western District of Wisconsin’s federal court claims that Fox has breached antitrust laws through “longstanding and ongoing” anticompetitive practices, using “market power to coerce distributors into not carrying or into marginalizing other right-leaning news channels, including Newsmax.”

Regarding the choice of venue, Newsmax stated that they are allowed to lodge the lawsuit in any region where they experienced the alleged illegal actions of Fox News, Reuters reported.

Judge Cannon, a Donald Trump appointee who recently dismissed special counsel Jack Smith’s Espionage Act inquiry and prosecution of the former president, took only a day to reject Newsmax’s Florida lawsuit last week. Her dismissal order described the antitrust claim as an “impermissible ‘shotgun pleading,'” explaining that “shotgun” referred to “a complaint containing multiple counts where each count adopts the allegations of all preceding counts, causing each successive count to carry all that came before and the last count to be a combination of the entire complaint.”

“The Court has an independent obligation to dismiss such pleadings and require repleader,” the judge wrote.

Newsmax alleges that Fox employs three unlawful means of excluding competitors in the “right-leaning video content” market. Such measures allegedly include contractual barriers and “no-carry” provisions on distributors of Fox’s “commercially critical content” that prohibit those carriers from carrying other right-leaning news channels, such as Newsmax.

Additionally, the complaint alleges that Fox “imposes financial penalties on distributors if they carry Newsmax or others by requiring the distributors to carry and pay high fees for Fox’s little-watched channels like Fox Business.”

“But for Fox’s anticompetitive behavior, Newsmax would have achieved greater pay TV distribution, seen its audience and ratings grow sooner, gained earlier ‘critical mass’ for major advertisers and become, overall, a more valuable media property,” the complaint says.

“Fox’s campaign to stunt Newsmax’s business has delayed, for almost a decade, Newsmax’s growth in pay TV distribution, especially in the critical virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (“vMVPD”) arena, and has resulted in significant damages to Newsmax, including in the form of lost business, missed advertising and marketing revenues, and lower cable license fees, all while increasing overall company costs,” it continued.

Fox provided a statement to Law&Crime after Newsmax filed its initial lawsuit in Florida.

“Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers,” the statement said.

Fox did not immediately provide an additional statement to Law&Crime.

Share this @internewscast.com
You May Also Like

Victorian Woman Initiates Lawsuit Against Sportsbet Following Accountant’s Mishandling of Her Life Savings

A Victorian woman who lost her life savings after her accountant gambled…

Couple Fatally Beat Boy in Disturbing and Heinous Crime

Left: Alicia Holloman. Right: Avion Traylor (WJBK/YouTube). A mother from Michigan and…

$20,000 Worth of Pokémon Cards Stolen from Vending Machine

Thieves have stolen an unusual haul in Sydney – hundreds of Pokémon…

Prosecutors Plan to Challenge Erin Patterson’s Sentence in Mushroom Poisoning Case

Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions will appeal mushroom killer Erin Patterson’s sentence…

US Supreme Court Declines Ghislaine Maxwell’s Appeal Request

On Monday (early Tuesday AEDT), the first day of their new term,…

A Fashion Decision Aided Australian Teacher and Students in Evading Abduction Incident

On October 6, 1972, in a small isolated Australian town, two armed…

Snapchat Video Captures Man’s Heroic Act as He Shields His Pregnant Sister While Dying: Police Report

Left inset: Tyler Sadowski. Right inset: Makayla Sadowski (GoFundMe). Background: The 600…

Duo apprehended for nocturnal hunting and drug charges

Staff report ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – On the night of October 4,…

Aunt Learns Consequence for Instructing Boy to Shoot Sonic Worker

Inset: Ashley Jasmin Marmolejo (Johnson County Jail). Background: Sonic Drive-in in Keene,…

Trump Criticizes Judge He Appointed for Portland Troops Decision

Left: Donald Trump delivers a speech at the annual Road to Majority…

Judge Criticizes Trump Administration’s Deployment of National Guard in Oregon

Left: Karin Immergut participates in her Senate confirmation hearing on October 24,…

Gainesville Woman Charged for Neglecting Children’s Skin Care

Staff report GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Latasha Cheree Neal, aged 35, is facing…