9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Antitrust Claims In MMS Case Against Wireless Carriers

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The 9th Circuit dismissed the antitrust claims against various wireless carriers brought by a purported class of commercial producers of multimedia content.
United States Antitrust/Competition Law

On April 17, 2014, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of antitrust claims against various wireless carriers that had been brought by a purported class of commercial producers of multimedia content. Davis v. AT&T Wireless Servs., No. 12-55985, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 7243 (9th Cir. Apr. 17, 2014).

Two years earlier, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California had dismissed the claims. Plaintiffs had alleged that when the wireless carriers created the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) standard for sending multimedia data files, they agreed not to implement digital rights management measures that would have protected materials copyrighted by third parties. Allegedly, the carriers' motive was to increase revenues and profits from the use of MMS. The district court ruled that the plaintiffs had not alleged antitrust injury, and therefore lacked antitrust standing.

The 9th Circuit agreed with the lower court that plaintiffs lacked standing, because they failed to allege that they and the defendants were participants in the MMS market in which plaintiffs' injury allegedly occurred.

A copy of the decision can be found here.

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