VIRGINIA BEACH — A Virginia Beach restaurant owner is being sued in federal court for $170,000 because a California-based closed-circuit video company claims he illegally showed a boxing match in his business in 2015.
The restaurant owner, however, says he never ordered or aired the fight.
J & J Sports Productions Inc. filed a federal complaint against JAM Cafe owner Sean Williams on Sept. 11. It alleges that two years ago Williams aired a championship boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Andrew Berto without paying a commercial licensing fee, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk.
Although Williams said he tried to order the boxing match through pay-per-view for his personal entertainment, he never completed the purchase and it was never aired in JAM Cafe, located at 3497 Holland Road.
“I didn’t have the fight,” Williams told Southside Daily on Tuesday.
The lawsuit is one of more than 90 filed in the federal court for Virginia’s Eastern District since 2007 by J & J Sports Productions Inc. on the grounds that people and businesses have violated the federal Communications Act of 1934, which regulates “interstate and foreign communications by wire or radio.”
Some of those cases have been dismissed, settled or a judgment has been made, while others are in active litigation.
And the lawsuit against Williams may be one of more than 5,000 filed nationally by J & J Sports for similar alleged violations of the federal act, according to a report by NBC’s Bay Area investigative unit that aired in January 2016.
J & J Sports piracy attorney Thomas Riley could not confirm Tuesday how many lawsuits J & J Sports has filed alleging piracy, but said that 5,000 did not sound outlandish.
Riley said that for business owners who want to air closed-circuit sporting events in their establishments, it’s not as simple as ordering the show on pay-per-view.
J & J Sports pays “substantial fees” for the rights to closed-circuit matches like the 2015 Mayweather/Berto fight, and businesses must pay J & J Sports commercial licensing fees for each match they plan to air in their establishments, the federal complaint states.
The fees vary between matches depending on the strength of the fight, appeal of the fighters and the size of the business airing it, Riley said.
“Ultimately if they do not pay the commercial license fee to the licensor their exhibition of the telecast is an act of piracy,” Riley said.
Riley added that a small venue looking to air a boxing match would likely pay a “couple thousand” dollars for a commercial licensing fee.
“A 100-seat bar in the Tidewater area of Virginia is going to pay the same as a 100-seat bar in San Jose,” Riley said. “It’ll pay quite a different fee than a 500-seat casino.”
With 72 seats in JAM Cafe, a “couple thousand” dollars is far from the $170,000 J & J Sports is suing for in damages and attorney’s fees; however, it’s comparable to the financial demands J & J Sports has made in other lawsuits filed in the same district.
Riley said that some businesses illegally air sporting events via pay-per-view, online streaming and offshore signals. When asked if J & J Sports sends workers into the businesses to determine if a J & J Sports telecast is being aired illegally, Riley declined to comment.
“The events are rigorously policed and our clients’ rights are vigorously enforced in service to their closed-circuit commercial customers,” Riley said.
“Litigation’s not brought for the financial … it’s done merely to protect their sizable investment in the licensing of the telecast and those customers that sub-license events from them,” he added.
Williams said that he plans to fight the federal lawsuit, adding that he believes it will be easy for him to prove that he did not order the fight.
“I did not watch that fight here,” Williams said, adding that he also never aired it for JAM Cafe customers.
Send news tips to [email protected].
