Attorneys with the Department of Justice’s antitrust division pushed back a request by the Writers Guild of America to dismiss a case filed by three large talent agencies. The WGA West has negotiated with more than 80 talent agencies that have agreed to the union’s terms, including ending industry practices like packaging, when agencies pull together talent for projects and collect a fee from studios. So far, five talent agencies that are members of the ATA have broken ranks and agreed to WGA’s terms. The agencies say that writers benefit from packaging because they don’t have to pay the typical 10% commission fee. Some large agencies are continuing to package shows without writers and centering the projects on popular books, podcasts and foreign-language shows.

Source: Los Angeles Times November 27, 2019 02:43 UTC