Fergie's Tech Blog

Lawsuit Claims That NHL Unfairly Controls Teams Websites

Via Reuters.

The National Hockey League is violating antitrust laws by seeking to control the Web sites that promote its teams, Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Rangers, charged in a lawsuit filed on Friday.

The lawsuit seeks to block the league from imposing a $100,000-per-day fine on the Garden, which along with the Rangers, is owned by Cablevision Systems Corp.

The league promised to impose the fine, starting on Friday, if the Rangers did not hand over "virtually complete control" of the Web site nyrangers.com, the suit said.

The suit said the league had violated state and federal antitrust laws by planning to create 30 "cookie-cutter club Web sites" that it will link to its main site, nhl.com, according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York.

posted by Fergie @ 9/28/2007 05:50:00 PM