A lawsuit involving a company that offers future bets on political elections is being transferred to a new district court.
According to a Law360 report, U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra has decided to transfer a lawsuit that accuses the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of acting “arbitrarily and capriciously” amid an attempt to shutter the operations of New Zealand-based PredictIt, which offers online political betting.
PredictIt brought on the lawsuit after the CFTC withdrew a no-action letter in 2022 that allowed the platform to operate in the U.S. if certain conditions were met due to political wagering being barred across the country. The conditions included not operating for a profit.
In response to the withdrawal, PredictIt, along with other plaintiffs, sued the CFTC to maintain operations. The lawsuit was initially dismissed by the Western District Court of Texas for an injunction but was overturned by the Fifth Circuit appeals court before being referred to the district court.
The case will now move to the D.C. District Court court as the result of a logjam in the Western District.
“[This court’s] own heavy docket in the Western District would prevent this case from proceeding to resolution in a more expeditious manner than would be in the D.C. District,” ruled Ezra. “Given all of this, the court finds this factor weighs in favor of this case to the D.C. District.”
The decision to transfer to the D.C. District Court also stems from two other plaintiffs in the lawsuit being based in the capital city of the U.S. PredictIt will now wait patiently for progress in the district court and will continue to serve customers across the country.
