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Newsmax, the conservative cable network run by Christopher Ruddy, has filed a lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the Rupert Murdoch-owned outlet of stifling competition in the rightwing television news market.
The antitrust lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the US district court for the southern district of Florida, names both Fox News Network and its parent company, Fox Corp. It claims the broadcaster carried out “an exclusionary scheme to increase and maintain its dominance in the market for US right-leaning pay TV news”.
The complaint goes on to say “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. Fox leverages this market power to coerce distributors into not carrying or into marginalizing other right-leaning news channels, including Newsmax.”
Newsmax alleges that the tactics used by Fox created an “unlawful monopolization of the Right-leaning Pay TV News Market”. It further states: “Fox’s longstanding and ongoing practices have harmed and will further harm competition and consumers in the United States.”
Newsmax is asking the court to permanently block Fox from using the alleged exclusionary contracts, while also pursuing financial compensation.
In a statement published on Newsmax’s website, Ruddy said: “Fox may have profited from exclusionary contracts and intimidation tactics for years, but those days are over.”
“This lawsuit is about restoring fairness to the market and ensuring that Americans have real choice in the news they watch. If we prevail, Fox’s damages could be tripled under federal law – an outcome that would send a powerful message to any company that thinks it can monopolize public discourse,” he added.
Fox News Media responded to the lawsuit in a statement shared with the Guardian: “Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers.”
This lawsuit is not the first major legal battle that has embroiled both Fox and Newsmax. Last month, Newsmax reportedly agreed to pay $67m to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit over lies about voting in the 2020 election.
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Dominion had previously obtained a $787.5m defamation settlement from Fox in 2023. Dominion lawyers acquired internal communications from Fox hosts and personalities that showed they knew many of the outlandish claims they were broadcasting about the election were not true.
Newsmax agreed to pay $40m to settle a defamation case against Smartmatic, another voting equipment company, last year.
