Three years after the deal closed, the HFPA returned with a 113-page complaint and a claim that the Golden Globes' fall was engineered.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association filed a 113-page federal lawsuit on July 28 against Jay Penske, Penske Media Corporation, the Golden Globe Foundation, and Foundation CEO Gregory Goeckner. Filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the complaint seeks more than $150 million in damages, treble damages, and the unwinding of the deal that transferred control of the Golden Globes to PMC.

The suit describes what it calls "a clandestine scheme to fraudulently acquire the prestigious and valuable 80-year-old Golden Globe Awards, destroy their founder and former owner, the HFPA, and exert monopolistic control over the Hollywood trades, awards, and advertising markets," according to The Hollywood Reporter. Its central argument: PMC's media properties amplified criticism of the HFPA's diversity record beginning in 2021, fueling the industry boycott that hollowed out the organization and made it vulnerable to acquisition.

The 2023 sale finalized with Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge Industries as buyers. Eldridge chairman Todd Boehly had served as interim HFPA CEO during the negotiation, a dual role the complaint calls "conflicted and corrupt." A post-closing amendment, the lawsuit alleges, transferred $27.5 million to Eldridge, equivalent to the full profit from the 2023 Golden Globes ceremony, without proper disclosure to or ratification by the HFPA membership. PMC now controls the majority of Hollywood's trade publications, alongside Gold Derby Media and Luminate, the firm that tracks awards eligibility statistics.

PMC rejected the allegations. A spokesperson said the transaction "closed more than three years ago and received all required approvals," calling any claim the deal remains reversible "unequivocally false." The company characterized the suit as the latest act of "absurdity" from "the defunct organization formerly known as the HFPA."

The lawsuit lands at a moment when PMC's structural position in the awards ecosystem raises questions the industry has largely left unasked. One company covering, tracking, and shaping the campaigns that determine who wins is a significant concentration of influence. Whether a federal court finds it an actionable one is now the question.