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Florida woman alleges breach of contract against BET

Contracts are a necessary part of running businesses. This is true regardless of the type of business or where it is headquartered. Some contracts are for products and other for services. The specifics of each will vary depending on the type of business.

The Black Entertainment Television network is currently embroiled in a dispute involving a service contract it had with a Florida woman. The woman developed and maintained a Facebook page designed to promote a program shown on the network called “The Game.” The woman recently filed a lawsuit against the network alleging breach of contract and breach of good faith and fair dealing related to that Facebook page. She is seeking an unspecified amount of damages.

The woman claims that she began working on the Facebook page when the show was running on another channel. After that network dropped the program she said she nonetheless continued to promote it. When it was eventually picked up by BET, for a time that network paid the woman as a freelancer to continue her work on the page. During that same period of time, the network sought to gain exclusive control of the Facebook page. While such deal never came to fruition, it eventually reached an agreement wherein the network could access that page along with the woman. Later, after rejecting another offer from the network, the woman eventually demoted BETs access to the page.

When the network was denied access to the Facebook page it created its own for the television show which, based upon the number of “likes” it has received, has been successful. BET also terminated the agreement it had with the woman. Her page was ultimately removed from Facebook.

The network takes issue with the woman’s claims. It asserts that it was actually she who breached the contract the two had when she made it impossible for the network to access the Facebook page. In addition, it claims that the woman failed to present any claims that are valid.

Because contracts are integral to running businesses it is inevitable that at some point a contract dispute will arise. When this happens, in most cases it is important for a business to do what it can to protect its interests. For best results this usually involves the assistance of a lawyer.

Source: The Star Tribune, “Florida woman sues BET in dispute over ‘The Game’ Facebook page she developed,” Curt Anderson, Nov. 20, 2013

Fri Aug 24, 6:49pm

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