Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden are calling on the Justice Department's antitrust division to inspect the controversial partnership between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.
In a letter to senior DOJ officials on Tuesday, Warren and Wyden argued the deal will allow Saudi Arabia to "sportswash" its "egregious human rights record" and would violate multiple provisions of antitrust law.
"The PGA-LIV deal would make a U.S. organization complicit — and force American golfers and their fans to join this complicity -- in the Saudi regime's latest attempt to sanitize its abuses by pouring funds into major sports league," Warren and Wyden wrote in the letter, which was addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Jonathan Kanter, the assistant attorney general for the antitrust division,
The PGA Tour shocked the world last week by announcing that both PGA and the European-based DP World Tour will partner with LIV Golf, which is owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.
"Significantly, the deal appears to have a substantial adverse impact on competition, violating several provisions of U.S. antitrust law, regardless of whether the deal is structured as a merger or some sort of joint venture," the senators added.
No matter the structure, the lawmakers argued, the deal would violate multiple provisions of antitrust law including Section 1 of the Sherman Act, which criminalizes actions "in restraint of trade or commerce."
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The letter comes after Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has launched a probe into the deal.
