In a win for the Writers Guild of America (WGA), a Los Angeles judge on Wednesday (December 30) denied a motion by WME for a preliminary injunction blocking the US guild’s boycott of the agency.

Citing a lack of jurisdiction over a labour dispute, Judge André Birotte Jr. handed the latest setback to WME, which remains the only Hollywood agency yet to sign the WGA’s updated franchise agreement.

In a hearing earlier this month the judge urged the parties to settle a 20-month-long dispute that started in spring 2019, when the guild instructed members to fire their agents until the agencies ended packaging fees on TV shows and limited ownership of affiliated production entities.

CAA, UTA and ICM Partners have all signed the guild’s new franchise agreement. CAA was the most recent to do so on December 16, and agreed, along with its majority owner TPG, to reduce its stake in film and TV studio wiip to the 20% required by the WGA.

After the early December hearing, WME offered a new proposal to the guild, which rejected that overture on Tuesday.

WME’s sister company under the Endeavor umbrella, the production, finance and sales entity Endeavor Content, has grown in recent years to become one of the most active in Hollywood and handles numerous multi-million dollar A-list packages each year

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