WASHINGTON, Oct. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — PredictIt merchants, educational customers and market know-how pioneer Aristotle filed a preliminary injunction in opposition to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for the aim of permitting continued buying and selling in current PredictIt markets, together with these monitoring the 2024 presidential election, whereas the courtroom considers overturning the CFTC’s order to close these markets down.
The motion follows a lawsuit filed on Sept. 9 in US Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas in response to CFTC motion to drive a wind-down of the favored occasion prediction market, PredictIt.
“All we are asking in the preliminary injunction motion is to continue to allow trading in existing, legally issued contracts and contract markets while the court decides the broader issues in the case,” stated David Mason, Aristotle General Counsel and former Federal Election Commission (FEC) Chairman.
“More than 14,000 individual traders hold positions in contracts involving the 2024 presidential election that the CFTC has ordered closed by Feb. 15, 2023. We think it is unfair to those traders to be forced to liquidate their positions while the court is considering the legality of the CFTC’s shutdown order.”
The preliminary injunction states, partially:
“Because the economic damages to Market investors are being caused by a federal Government action, sovereign immunity and other principles will make it difficult to recover these damages later, rendering the harm irreparable. Accordingly, the Plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction against the Commission prohibiting markets that were already in place as of the Commission’s revocation decision from continuing to trade to their natural conclusion.”
There are tens of hundreds of PredictIt merchants with modest investments and high quality analysis completed by greater than 200 educational analysis companions that depend on the usage of the positioning’s anonymized knowledge, to not point out the social and journalistic worth of PredictIt which is at stake.
“The Plaintiffs also challenge the Commission’s decision to close the Market and bar the issuance of contracts on brand new topics, but will seek relief on that issue in the normal course through summary judgement proceedings,” in accordance with the preliminary injunction.
Aristotle is the contract service supplier for the PredictIt Market, which has operated below No-Action Relief CFTC 14-130 since 2014.
Press inquiries must be directed to [email protected].
###
