The PGA Tour Inc. won a court ruling directing Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to provide evidence in an acrimonious antitrust battle with LIV Golf, the rival upstart backed by the oil-rich kingdom.
(Bloomberg) —
The PGA Tour Inc. won a court ruling directing Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to provide evidence in an acrimonious antitrust battle with LIV Golf, the rival upstart backed by the oil-rich kingdom.
US Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen in California granted PGA’s request to force the Public Investment Fund and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, to testify under oath and produce documents.
With a subpoena, the PGA will be able to gather additional material to bolster its claims that LIV unlawfully pushed players to break contracts with the US-based tour by offering them exorbitant sums of money.
Attorneys for the Saudi fund had argued that sovereign immunity shields PIF and Al-Rumayyan from providing evidence in US courts. But Van Keulen ruled in favor of the PGA, which said commercial activities are excluded from sovereign immunity protection under US law.
“It is plain that PIF is not a mere investor in LIV, it is the moving force behind its founding, funding, oversight, and operation of LIV,” Van Keulen wrote in her ruling, parts of which have been redacted. “PIF’s actions are indisputably the type of actions by which a private party engages in trade and traffic or commerce.”
A federal district judge in San Jose, California, has set a hearing in May on a separate request by the PGA to allow it to revise its claims to include the fund and its chief as defendants.
LIV Golf and the PGA Tour declined to comment.
At a hearing in January, Elliot Peters, an attorney representing the PGA, claimed that PIF and Al-Rumayyan are involved in LIV’s day-to-day operations, including negotiating player contracts and broadcast deals.
PIF and Al-Rumayyan’s attorneys argued that their clients have said that they never participated in player negotiations or conducted business for LIV and that a subpoena would force them to violate confidentiality laws of Saudi Arabia.
The fight between the two tours began when 11 professional golfers, including Phil Mickelson, Talor Gooch and Matt Jones, sued the PGA in August for suspending them after they signed on with the Saudi-backed tour. LIV joined the suit a month later, prompting Mickelson, Gooch and others to withdraw from the suit.
PGA then countersued, claiming LIV’s alleged interference with PGA players contracts harmed its brand and reputation.
LIV claims PGA is a monopolist seeking to sabotage competition in the professional golf industry.
The case is Jones v. PGA Tour Inc., 22-cv-04486, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).
(Updates with LIV, PGA response, details from ruling)
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