Overview

• On June 4, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied Disney’s ex parte request for a temporary restraining order against Justin Connolly, citing lack of emergency, favorable balance of harms and low probability of success on the merits.
• Connolly, who stepped down as president of Disney Platform Distribution in April, is now set to begin his role as YouTube’s global head of media and sports.
• Disney argued that Connolly’s departure would be extremely prejudicial to its ongoing licensing negotiations with YouTube and plans to seek a preliminary injunction in an independent court.
• YouTube countered that Disney intended to leverage Connolly in its license renewal talks and noted it had known for over six weeks about his impending move.
• The legal clash highlights growing tensions over executive mobility and content licensing in the competitive streaming industry.