It seems that a lawsuit has been filed alleging that the National Hockey League is violating American antitrust laws by controlling and promoting the Web sites of its individual teams.

The lawsuit seeks to block the NHL from trying to impose a US$100,000-per-day fine on the New York Garden and the New York Rangers, who are both owned by Cablevision Systems Corporation. The NHL has reportedly said that it will attempt to collect the fine if the New York Rangers do not hand over complete control of the nyrangers.com Web site.

The lawsuit claims that the NHL is violating antitrust law by creating identical Web sites for each NHL team that will require a similar look and feel to the NHL.com site and automatically link back to the NHL’s main Web site, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in New York.

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