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DraftKings has filed a federal complaint challenging Philadelphia’s consumer-protection ordinance, arguing the city cannot use it to investigate or sue the sportsbook operator.
According to the complaint, Philadelphia sent DraftKings a subpoena in April seeking information about revenue from gamblers identified through analytics and other means, along with details about promotions and bonus offers. DraftKings is now asking the court to find the city’s ordinance unenforceable.
The company argues Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law gives public enforcement power to the state attorney general and district attorneys, not municipalities. In the complaint, DraftKings says, “The General Assembly vested public enforcement authority under the UTPCPL in the Attorney General and district attorneys acting in the name of the Commonwealth.” It adds: “It did not authorize municipalities to create parallel consumer protection enforcement agencies.”
Philadelphia’s Consumer Protection Ordinance was enacted in 2024 and allows Mayor Cherelle Parker to bring consumer-protection cases. DraftKings also argues the local law conflicts with the First Class City Home Rule Act and interferes with the authority of state gaming regulators.
Philadelphia has defended the ordinance in other litigation. City lawyers have argued that “the CPO provides a complementary, additional means to further the purpose of the UTPCPL within Philadelphia.”
The dispute matters beyond this one case because Philadelphia has already used the ordinance in lawsuits involving pharmacy benefits managers over opioids, S.C. Johnson & Son over Ziploc bag recyclability, and Glock. Other defendants have also challenged the law, and those arguments are still pending before Judge Gerald Pappert.
For DraftKings users, the immediate takeaway is procedural: this filing is about who has authority to police alleged consumer-protection violations, not a ruling on the merits of any claim against the operator. The source report did not say what specific claims Philadelphia may ultimately try to bring against DraftKings, and no outcome has been reported yet.
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Source: As reported by Black Chronicle News Service.
