All About DISH Network Lawsuits

After DISH Network called people on the Do Not Call Registry, they got hit with a major lawsuit, described in this 2018 report from CBS News:
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Thousands of people who got a telemarketing call for Dish Network in 2010 or 2011 may be able to collect $1,200 per call. If you think that sounds too good to be true, you’re not alone. Lawyers say they are having trouble convincing people to sign up to get the money they’re owed from the $61 million class action lawsuit over sales pitches to people on the national Do Not Call Registry.

There’s been a 120 percent increase in complaints about violations of the list since 2014. Nearly 230 million numbers are on the registry. It was supposed to stop unwanted telemarketing, but it hasn’t. Thousands are now eligible for payback after a lawsuit against Dish Network, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.

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“The evidence was that Dish Network knew what was going on,” Barrett said. “It had the ability to put an end to it but didn’t.”

TorrentFreak has this story of DISH Network suing another company, SETTV, for rebroadcasting their content without permission.

The case was settled, with DISH receiving compensation:
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SETTV, an under-fire IPTV service previously sued by several Hollywood studios, has suffered a crushing blow in another US-based lawsuit. After being sued by DISH Network and Nagrastar for retransmitting the former’s content without authorization, SETTV has now agreed to pay the plaintiffs more than $90 million while shutting down and handing over its domains and equipment.

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DISH and NagraStar alleged that “for only $20 per month”, SET TV gave users access to more than 500 live channels, including on-demand content and PPV broadcasts. The company also sold pre-configured hardware devices that came pre-loaded with the SET TV application. As a result, the plaintiffs demanded a permanent injunction plus huge damages.

In an agreed judgment handed down by a Florida court (the merits of the case were not considered), the demands of DISH and NagraStar have now been met.

DISH Network is also often on the receiving end of corporate lawsuits.

The Hollywood Reporter tells us of this DISH Network lawsuit by Univision, under claims that the network misused Univision trademarks and falsely advertised airing carrying Univision content when the two companies were not in contract:
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[A] cross-complaint filed on Friday by Univision alleg[es] that Dish still owes millions of dollars in license fees under the old deal plus is falsely advertising the availability of Univision on the satcaster’s services.

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“Dish has falsely advertised on its website, in flyers distributed by an authorized Dish retailer, and on the website of an authorized Dish retailer that Dish still distributed the Univision Services when it plainly did not, and it has thus violated Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act,” continues the suit. “These deceptive tactics were clearly intended to minimize the effects of its business decision not to renew the Agreement with Univision by attempting to attract new Hispanic customers with the illusory promise of the popular Univision Services.”

Justia outlines a case, where the lawsuit of an ex-employee of DISH Network under the Fair Labor Standards Act claim was referred to arbitration on a class basis:
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Matthew Ray, a former DISH Network L.L.C. employee who signed an arbitration agreement when he was employed, filed an action in the federal district court alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), Colorado’s Wage Claim Act, Colorado’s Minimum Wage Act, and a common law claim for breach of contract. Dish moved to dismiss, demanding that Ray arbitrate his claims pursuant to the Agreement.

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After review, the Tenth Circuit determined the arbitrator in this case did not manifestly disregard Colorado law when he concluded that he was authorized to conduct class arbitration by the broad language of the Agreement in combination with the requirement that arbitration be conducted pursuant to the AAA’s Employment Dispute Rules. Accordingly, the district court correctly denied DISH’s petition to vacate the arbitration award.

VentureBeat describes a prior case where TiVo launched a lawsuit onto DISH and its parent company EchoStar for their use of proprietary technology:
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After five years of legal back and forth, Dish Network and its former parent company EchoStar have settled their ongoing litigation with digital video recording (DVR) company Tivo that centered on Dish’s DVR implementation, for $500 million.

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Tivo will receive an upfront $300 million payment in cash from Dish and EchoStar, and the remaining $200 million will be paid out between 2012 and 2017. Tivo still has litigation up in the air with AT&T, Verizon and Microsoft over their DVR implementations.

AfterDawn reports this 2018 story from the UK, where a UK software developer faced a DISH Network lawsuit alleging that he made a TV add-on that ran unauthorized streaming content:
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A Kodi Addon developer in the UK may be facing a judgment of almost $2 million in a lawsuit brought against him by U.S. satellite provider Dish Network.

The developer, Shani, had been sued by Dish because his ZemTV addon offered unauthorized streams of television channels. While Dish claimed that the addon was responsible for the unauthorized broadcast of thousands of infringing works, it focused on just thirteen for the lawsuit.

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“Defendant infringed DISH’s copyrights on a massive scale by retransmitting the Protected Channels without authorization on ZemTV. Defendant transmitted the Protected Channels on ZemTV for at least 16 months from February 2016 through June 2017,” Dish informs the Texas federal court.

Time offers us this wild 2015 story of a Colorado man who sued DISH Network after he was fired for his use of medical marijuana in the state:
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For the fifth time in seven years, a state high court has ruled that employers have the right to fire employees who use medical marijuana.

In a decision released today, the Colorado Supreme Court found that Dish Network, the national satellite TV provider, did not act illegally when it fired Brandon Coats, a Denver-area call center rep, in 2010 after Coats tested positive for marijuana. Although Colorado law permits the use of medical marijuana, the court ruled that Dish was within its rights because pot remains illegal under federal law.

Although the case is limited to Colorado, the court’s decision has national ramifications. Previous cases in California, Montana, Oregon, and Washington all swung for the employer, but the Colorado case was seen as the best chance for a ruling in favor of medical marijuana patients–and not just because of the state’s embrace of medical and recreational pot.