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The U.S. District Court in Connecticut issued a ruling on 9/18 that ESPN and BamTech, LLC (the ESPN subsidiary that handles their streaming technology) have had their motion to intervene in the lawuit filed by Michael Diesa and Rebecca Tobak against WWE, and have been officially added as defendants.
The lawsuit alleges WWE misled customers about how to watch its major PPV/PLE events after it moved them to the ESPN Unlimited streaming platform as of WrestlePalooza 2025.
ESPN and BAMTech have claimed the lawsuit should be moving to arbitration based on the plaintiffs' subscribing to the ESPN Unlimited service, therefore they would be falling under those terms of service. Those claims matched the arguments that WWE had made, alleging that since the plaintiffs are subscribed to ESPN Unlimited, their claims should be governed under Disney/ESPN's arbitration clause in the legalese included when they subscribed to the service for WWE events.
Diesa, a New Jersey resident, is a cable customer who already paid over $100 per month for cable with ESPN and found he needed to upgrade his Disney streaming bundle so his child could watch WWE events. Toback, a New York resident, was a YouTube TV subscriber who had to paid $29.99 the day of a WWE event in order to access ESPN’s streaming service, then canceled after the event.
The lawsuit's core allegation is that statements from officials like WWE President Nick Khan and marketing and promotion from the company made it appear that anyone with an existing ESPN subsclription to via their cable or satellite subscription would have access to the WWE events, but in many cases, fans needed to subscribe for $29.99 a month for the ESPN app. Obviously, ESPN had not come to terms with a number of providers to allow access at the time of WrestlePalooza 2025 and in some cases, that integration has since been addded, while others are still being worked on currently.
Their original 32-page lawsuit alleges ESPN press releases stating the new app would be available to fans who subscribe “directly or through a traditional pay TV package.” It also cited Nick Khan stating on a podcast that, just like previous deals (likely WWE's old Peacock agreement), WWE’s events would come with “no upcharge” for subscribers. The claim is that this led to fans believing that if they already had ESPN access, they had automatic access to the WWE events without additional fees - but discovered otherwise and were required to sign up for the service.
Obviously, access depended on behind-the-scenes agreements between Disney (ESPN’s parent company) and individual TV providers. At the time, some services (Verizon Fios, DirecTV, Spectrum, and Hulu + Live TV) allowed customers to log into the ESPN app and watch the events. Others (such as Cox, Xfinity and YouTube TV at the time) did not at the time of launch, forcing customers to pay extra.
The class action lawsuit is for United States-based customers who paid for the ESPN App between 8/6/25 and 9/20/25 but had already been paying for ESPN through cable or a live TV streaming service. Anyone who had automatic access to the ESPN App through their cable or satellite providers by 9/20/25 would not be included.
ESPN had not initially been listed as a defendant, which the original lawsuit noted was intentional as Disney’s existing subscriber agreements require arbitration and block class actions. ESPN and WWE had been trying to circumvent that and now that ESPN and its subsidiary have been added as defendants, one would think that argument will be brought officially before the court.
The lawsuit has been seeking, "An award of actual, compensatory, and/or consequential damages, alternatively, an award of nominal damages (if and as necessary), an award of statutory damages (if and as permitted by law), an award of punitive damages (pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. §42-110g(a) and/or as otherwise permitted by law, an award of reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred in connection with this action (pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. §42-110g(d) and/or as otherwise permitted by law, an award of the costs of this action (pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. §42-110g(d) and/or as otherwise permitted by law), any injunctive relief necessary to preclude WWE from (a) continuing to violate CUTPA, (b) conspiring with ESPN to violate CUTPA, and/or (c) aiding and/or abetting ESPN in its violation(s) of CUTPA; and/or any other legal or equitable relief as the Court deems appropriate."
The plaintiffs have been seeking a jury trial since the lawsuit was officially filed.
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