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The lawsuit filed on 9/15 by FloSports, Inc. against WWN, the parent company of EVOLVE, FIP, Style Battle and SHINE in District Court of Travis County, Texas revolves around allegations that WWN, run by Sal Hamaoui and Gabe Sapolsky provided false information that led to Flosports paying inflated prices for WWN content.
The lawsuit alleges that "WWN negligently or otherwise misrepresented the number of fans purchasing pay-perview and video-on-demand access to their fighting events. When pressed for the data that backed up WWN’s spreadsheet of viewership, WWN originally claimed it had lost or deleted that information. Ultimately, WWN sent records listing many subscribers more than once and including purchasers of DVDs instead of broadcast services. Even with that artificial inflation of viewership, the numbers WWN attempted to account for were far less than those represented in its initial spreadsheet."
While, according to the lawsuit, WWN was contractually obligated to be truthful, instead, "WWN induced FloSports to pay it hundreds of thousands of dollars based on data that was not only inaccurate and unreliable; it was just plain false."
Flosports alleged that they have "Invested time and money that it will never recover in the market" noting, "since viewership drives FloSports’ subscription-base and its advertising revenue, WWN’s misrepresentations robbed FloSports..."
Flosports alleged that WWN was responsible for negligent misrepresentation, claiming, that the company "Negligently or otherwise WWN misrepresented the number of fans purchasing pay-perview and video-on-demand access to their fighting events. WWN did not use reasonable care in obtaining or communicating the information. The misrepresentations and omissions were material. A reasonable person would attach importance to and be induced to act on WWN’s representations. WWN had reason to expect that FloSports would rely on its representations, and FloSports did, indeed, reasonably and justifiably rely upon them."
Flosports is seeking over one million dollars in damages.
WWN has fifty days to respond to the lawsuit with the following materials requested by Flosports (thePlaintiff):
*Describe your negotiations with Plaintiff leading up to the agreements between the parties. Include how you first knew Plaintiff; the person who made the initial contact between the parties; and the conversations you had with Plaintiff during negotiations, including the parties to the conversations, date of the conversations, means of conversation, and the substance of the conversations.
*Identify any conversations you had with Plaintiff regarding the number of fans purchasing payper-view and video-on-demand access to your fighting events. Include the individuals to each conversation, date of the conversation, means of communication, and the substance of the communication. Interrogatory
*Detail your method for calculating the number of fans purchasing pay-per-view and video-ondemand access to your fighting events.
*All agreements and drafts of agreements between you and Plaintiff. Include in your response emails and other electronic items (including deleted or archived items).
*Produce all documents and communications (electronic or otherwise, including deleted or archived items) regarding any agreements between you and Plaintiff. Include in your response emails and other electronic items.
*Produce all documents and communications (electronic or otherwise, including deleted or archived items) reflecting or relating to negotiations between you and Plaintiff. Include in your response e-mails and other electronic items.
*Produce all documents and communications (electronic or otherwise, including deleted or archived items) reflecting or relating to the number of fans purchasing pay-per-view and videoon-demand access to your fighting events.
*All internal communications regarding Plaintiff. Include in your response emails and other electronic items (including deleted or archived items).
*All notes from any conversations with Plaintiff. Include in your response emails and other electronic items (including deleted or archived items).
As noted earlier, PWInsider.com is awaiting a statement from the attorney for WWN. Flosports did not respond to queries regarding the lawsuit made earlier today by PWInsider.com
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