NHL Secures Dismissal of Antitrust Class Action

Paul, Weiss secured the dismissal of a putative antitrust class action against the National Hockey League filed by two former junior hockey league players. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted the NHL’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit for lack of personal jurisdiction.

In February 2024, the former junior hockey league players filed suit against the NHL and the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), a Canada-based developmental hockey league, in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, alleging that the CHL and NHL engaged in a cartel to restrain the market for hockey services in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. In November, the court dismissed the CHL defendants from the case for lack of personal jurisdiction, and the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their case against the NHL a few weeks later. A month later, plaintiffs re-filed substantially the same lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The NHL moved to dismiss on several grounds, including that the court lacked personal jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(2), that the plaintiffs lacked Article III standing and antitrust standing, and that their claims against the NHL were barred by both the non-statutory labor exemption to antitrust laws and the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act (FTAIA).

In her decision, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin granted the NHL’s motion to dismiss on personal jurisdiction grounds. Judge Lin held that the plaintiffs could not establish jurisdiction over the NHL via the Clayton Act because the NHL is “an unincorporated joint venture association,” not a corporation; and that they could not establish personal jurisdiction over the NHL via the state’s long-arm statute because Washington courts have rejected the conspiracy theory of long-arm jurisdiction, so the NHL’s supposed participation in the alleged conspiracy alone was insufficient. The judge also found that the fact that one of the plaintiffs played for a Washington CHL club was insufficient, and that the alleged restraints imposed via an agreement between the NHL and CHL apply equally to all players drafted into the NHL. Judge Lin noted that, because the NHL must be dismissed for personal jurisdiction, she would not address the NHL’s standing and non-statutory labor exemption arguments. In the same opinion, the judge also granted the CHL defendants’ motion to dismiss on personal jurisdiction, FTAIA and international comity grounds.

The Paul, Weiss team includes, among others, litigation partner Andrew Gordon.