Joseph R. Saveri

Saveri calculates that his antitrust and class action litigation efforts have generated $4 billion in settlements and other successful resolutions since he founded his Joseph Saveri Law Firm Inc. in 2012.

In late August he was in Las Vegas for class certification hearing for the class he’s representing of mixed martial arts fighters suing the sport’s owners for allegedly unfair low pay. Le v. Zuffa LLC, 2:15-cv-01045 (D. Nev., filed June 3, 2015).

The named plaintiff, Cung Le, and other former Ultimate Fighting Championship figures contend that the UFC’s parent, Zuffa, operated as monopoly that used marketplace control to keep fighter pay down. The class is seeking $1.3 billion, Saveri said.

“It’s always a little odd to come to Vegas to do legal work,” said Saveri, who was staying at a casino resort. “I walk through the casino lobby every morning in my suit and everyone looks at me like I’m from the Treasury Department.”

Earlier in the case, U.S. District Judge Richard F. Boulware denied the UFC’s motion to dismiss.

At the class certification hearing, “The court wanted some live testimony from the economics experts,” Saveri said. “I’m happy about the way the testimony came in. We like the opportunity to present evidence. We want to try this case. The people who own this sport are basically making and keeping all the money.”

He added that his firm is among the few that do antitrust work involving labor markets.

“In this case we see anti-competitive restraint by a dominant employer with exclusive contracts that bar competition. This is where we shine.”

In April 2019 Saveri was invited to speak at a roundtable sponsored by the competition policy and advocacy section of the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C. The topic was the upcoming renewal of the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement & Reform Act, a law intended to incentivize the self-reporting of criminal conduct by granting leniency to companies that provide civil plaintiffs with timely “satisfactory cooperation.”

Saveri knows the law well and wants it renewed but hopes for greater emphasis on offenders’ cooperation with plaintiffs’ firms like his. “There are significant benefits for those who do damage,” he said. “Our concern is that the bargain be a fair one and that the cooperation is full, timely and complete.”

— John Roemer