A federal judge in Los Angeles has dismissed an antitrust lawsuit that a Norwegian entertainment reporter filed against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization behind the Golden Globe Awards.
In August, reporter Kjersti Flaa filed suit claiming that, although the HFPA is a tax-exempt organization, it acted like a private club and a cartel, barring qualified applicants who might compete with existing members and severely hampering their professional opportunities.
“Qualified applicants for admission to the HFPA are virtually always rejected because the majority of its 87 members are unwilling to share or dilute the enormous economic benefits they receive as members,” the suit said.
But in his ruling on Friday, Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. rejected those arguments, citing Flaa’s work covering the entertainment industry over the past several years, including earning second place at the SoCal Journalism Awards Contest in 2018 for a profile of Jane Fonda.
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