Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-3_15-cv-00489/USCOURTS-cand-3_15-cv-00489-16/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 410
Nature of Suit: Antitrust
Cause of Action: 15:1 Antitrust Litigation

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

WILLIAM MICHAEL HICKS, et al.,

Plaintiffs,

v.

PGA TOUR, INC.,

Defendant.

Case No. 15-cv-00489-VC 

ORDER DENYING MOTION TO FILE 

UNDER SEAL

Re: Dkt. No. 70

The defendant's motion to file under seal Exhibits A, B, and C to its request for judicial 

notice in support of its motion to dismiss the first amended complaint is denied. The Tour 

asserts that its "standard form tournament agreements" must be concealed from the public 

because competitors might take advantage of information contained in them. But the Tour 

makes this assertion at a high level of abstraction, without explaining, in concrete terms or with 

examples, who might take advantage of the information, or how they might do so. (For that 

matter, the Court cannot, on its own, conceive of a real-world example in which this would 

happen.) Although the defendant's first motion to dismiss was mooted by the parties' stipulation 

to allow the plaintiffs to file a second amended complaint, that motion was "more than 

tangentially related to the merits of [the] case." Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 

F.3d 1092, 1101 (9th Cir. 2016). Accordingly, the Tour has not satisfied the standard for filing 

these documents under seal. See id. at 1100-01.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: February 10, 2016

______________________________________

VINCE CHHABRIA

United States District Judge

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