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US: Judge denies Viamedia documents to Comcast

By  |  July 11, 2017

A Chicago federal judge has refused to force Viamedia, a New York-based seller of local cable TV advertising, to turn over documents Comcast believes would shed light on Viamedia’s efforts to use third-party litigation funding to fund its antitrust legal claims against Comcast, and to urge the federal government to also take action against the telecom giant.

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    US District Judge Amy J. St. Eve denied Comcast’s motion to compel the disclosure of both a group of 51 documents Viamedia may have shared with what the judge described as “prospective litigation firms” and an additional group of more than 400 documents Viamedia turned over the Department of Justice, as part of what Comcast said was Viamedia’s “business strategy of exerting litigation pressure on Comcast instead of competing in the marketplace.”

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    “While Viamedia should have taken greater care in preparing its privilege logs, the Court will not impose the harsh sanction of waiver based on Viamedia’s conduct, particularly because of the large number of documents involved in this case, and, significantly, because the Court cannot conclude that Defendants were unfairly prejudiced,” St. Eve wrote. “Viamedia, however, should exercise greater caution in the future.”

    The ruling comes as the latest milestone in the legal row between Comcast and Viamedia over local cable TV advertising in the Chicago and Detroit media markets. The lawsuit landed in federal court in May 2016 when Viamedia sued Comcast, alleging the cable TV and Internet provider violated federal antitrust law through “tying” – a tactic in which the sale of one product is conditioned on the sale of an unrelated product or service – and “exclusive dealing,” as well as refusal to deal.

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