F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix hit with class action lawsuit

A class action lawsuit has been filed against the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix in relation to fans being forced to leave Thursday’s practice session after an hourslong delay.

Dimopoulos Law Firm and co-counsel JK Legal & Consulting filed the suit Friday in Nevada District Court on behalf of 35,000 fans who purchased tickets to Thursday’s practice run, the legal firms announced Saturday.

Just nine minutes after Thursday’s’s practice session began, a water valve cover came loose and damaged multiple F1 drivers’ vehicles. That led to a 2 ½ hour delay, with a 90-minute second practice session beginning at 2:30 a.m. Friday.

Fans were forced by police and security officers to leave at 1:30 a.m. Friday and weren’t able to watch the session.

The defendants named in the lawsuit are Liberty Media Corporation, doing business as Formula One Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix and TAB Contractors, Inc. The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, negligence and deceptive trade practices against the defendants.

“We will vindicate the rights of the fans that traveled great distances and paid small fortunes to attend, but were deprived of the experience,” Dimopoulos Law Firm owner and lead attorney Steve Dimopoulos said in a statement.

Richard,

I am curious, how many fans were still there at 1:30? At one point the tv presenting showed people being asked to leave and there wasn’t a stack of people left several hours after p1 was cancelled. Made me wonder whether if they were incapable of keeping all stadiums staffed, could they have funnelled the remaining people, if not too many, to the main grandstand (or say two) and closed all the others.

I do feel for the people but, especially those that may have only had tickets to day 1. Even those with 3 days missed out, wasted a day off work, etc, as a result.

It happens though…Spa 2021 being another similar situation where the crowd wasn’t necessarily ejected, but they didn’t see what they’d come for either.

smeg,

I hear the phrase “class action lawsuit” mentioned on the internet all the time, does it actually mean anything at this early point or is it just some chancers trying their luck? Basically is there any point in paying this story any attention unless it goes to court?

tryptaminev,

It is just the concept of the proceeding and one of the things, where i consider the US justice system to be better than many European systems. It is a “class action”, because there is many people, where both the claim and the conditions are the same. So it makes sense to make one suit for everyone instead of an individual suit every time, as the decision should be the same among all suits.

It does not mean, that it is more severe or not. If there wouldn’t be class action, imagine the headline “35.000 civil suits opened against F1 Las Vegas Grand prix.”

smeg,

Thanks! I am aware of the concept and it does seem like a useful tool, but my point was more: is the opening of the lawsuit actually news, or do they usually go nowhere? Or in other words should we wait until it actually gets to court before reporting on it?

tryptaminev,

Of course it should be reported now. There is people who were affected and need to know about the lawsuit, so they can decide to join in on it. It needs to be in public attention, so that both sides are pressured to play fairly, in particular the F1, since companies in the US love to play ressource games at court.

smeg,

You need to discover its existence yourself and manually join it? Do the legal people not make an effort to find everyone they’re supposed to be representing?

tryptaminev,

How would they know that you have been there that day and how to contact you? The F1 surely wont hand out the list of qll customers who purchased a ticket and i am not sure if it would be even legal. In my country it wouldnt be legal for sure.

smeg,

No idea, I guess publicising it makes sense

Artyom,

In a class action lawsuit, identifying everyone who bought tickets is part of discovery. F1 will have to provide a list and it is up to the plaintiff to reach out to those people and get them to sign on. Even if someone doesn’t participate, they’re still entitled to any damages. It’s pretty common to get a $20 check for a service you may have used a decade ago that settled a class action lawsuit, even if you never heard of it before. I just got one from Zoom for anti-competitive practices during COVID.

JeeBaiChow,

Welcome to America, bitches!

cosmicrookie,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

Sorry, but this is a standing joke about the US in more or less any other country. That they’ll sue for just about anything. It’s always the classics like cooking your cat in the microwave or spilling hot coffee on your lap, but this one should be added to the list…

I’d be surprised if F1 haven’t included stuff like this in their terms, especially after the rain race at SPA a few years back.

Microw,

The coffee one is actually a legitimate thing that happened where a store served a boiling coffee that was way too hot and the customer suffered burns, so of course she sued.

Aarrodri,

You sound stupid.

tdot, (edited )
  1. How is being kicked out of an event you paid for because of the event providers’ own incompetence in any way analogous to self inflicted idiocy like putting a pet in the microwave? 2. Look up the scalding hot coffee lawsuit. The individual suffered serious burns. It’s not the joke it has been reduced to.
frank,

And she only wanted enough money to cover medical bills! That poor woman becoming the butt of so many jokes over it

4am,

Look how stupid Americans are, they won’t take responsibility for anything!

Called out for regurgitating McDonald’s propaganda since the fucking 90s; never takes responsibility

ok buddy EU, you guys are definitely the model of humanity. 👍

ImpossibilityBox,

The coffee incident left the woman with horrendous 3rd degree burns that required hospitalization because the coffee was served way hotter than it is ever supposed to be. The photos are harrowing. What part of that makes it a dumb or unreasonable thing to sue over?

vladmech,

The coffee that was served so hot that McD was warned and fined multiple times prior and that, when spilled, melted and fused the woman’s vulva together? Man I can’t imagine why they would have been sued over that.

hal_5700X,
@hal_5700X@lemmy.world avatar

Who didn’t see this coming? You can see this coming from a mile away.

danielfgom,
@danielfgom@lemmy.world avatar

Yup. To be fair they should have refunded them on the spot. Because then Liberty Media could easily stand up to them in court and would not have to reimburse traveling costs.

But as it stands, they will lose most likely, and end up paying far more.

No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston,

This race is absolutely crafted for Asia and Middle East audiences. No one in Europe will wake up on a Sunday at u am for this race if you have a dvr or replay service from your provider.
People In the US can literally ignore this as there’s zero drama on who will win the season nor a glimpse of non dominance.
Meh even the circuit looks like an upside down pig.

DV8,

Middle aged people tend to get up at 6-7 in the weekend too. At least me and friends do.

The timeslots for this weekend is definitely ok for me. I like watching F1 in the morning and have the rest of the day free.

Microw,

It’s at 7am in central europe. A far shot from the Suzuka race which is earlier.

JJROKCZ,

I really get tired of Europeans whining about a handful of morning (not even that early) races when vast portions of the world have to deal with the inconvenient times of the European races.

Suck it up, if you don’t want to wake up then don’t. I wake up for 6am races most of the calendar

florge,

I really don’t get whats so bad about a 6AM race, if I did watch the races live I’d actually be more likely to be able to watch one at 6AM rather than in the middle of the day.

bernieecclestoned,

The amount of drugs needed to stay up until 6am

JCPhoenix,
JCPhoenix avatar

Bernie, you're using the wrong drugs.

Or just wake up at 6am and then get ecclestoned.

JJROKCZ,

Go to sleep early, wake up at 6 with a coffee and breakfast. When I wake up early for races 18+ times a year that’s what I do. Then when the race is done get on with the Sunday cleaning like normal sundays

Hoomod,

I’d take a 6am race over a 1am race

They could’ve had the race at like 7pm local time and it would still be a night race

mr47,

You contradict yourself. You are saying it's for ME and Asia audiences because of the timeslot, and right after that state that US viewers (for whom the timeslot is comfortable) will ignore it due to lack of interest. So what are the European, ME, and Asian viewers are interested in?

evanuggetpi,

Everyone complaining about the start time, here in NZ it’s actually one of the very few races I can watch live. 7pm Sunday evening? Why yes, thank you.

Still, it’s bizarre for practice sessions to be held in the middle of the night local time.

4am,

The track is built on public roads and it opens at 4am for commuters and services that need it.

Also the Las Vegas strip is open most of the day IIRC.

Basically the early morning hours are about the only time they could have held it

evanuggetpi,

Username checks out

MadMonkey,

This is a good race for us in Aussie and NZ!

signor,

Good luck, pretty sure the rained out spa attendees haven’t gotten a refund for that shitshow.

Microw,

That was a different jurisdiction and different corcumstances, so not Sure that sets a precedenr

Tvkan,

Also bad weather is pretty much the definition of an act of God. Not properly securing the track surface isn’t.

JJROKCZ,

Believe many were offered tickets to the following years race either free or discounted heavily. Might be mistaken tho

zav_,

@JJROKCZ I think about half have never received refunds nor discounted tickets

JJROKCZ,

Oof that’s embarrassing then, they need to get that sorted immediately

Rob,

Well that was quick

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