NEW YORK (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 <CVC.N>.
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.
The Garden, which is not seeking punitive damages, said it
had spent six years cultivating a sophisticated and popular
Rangers Web site, which includes video clips from games and
access to team merchandise.
"The NHL has no competitive justification for seizing the
Rangers Web site, which MSG today uses as a competitive tool to
generate and maintain fan interest in the Rangers in
competition with other NHL teams," the lawsuit said.
A spokesman for the NHL did not have an immediate comment.
Earlier this year, the NHL fined the Garden $100,000 a day
for using the Rangers' Web site to offer exclusive access to
games and merchandise, the lawsuit said.
In that case, the Garden complied with the NHL's demands
and removed the material from its site.