IMEGA Anti-UIGEA Hearing Postponed

According to IMEGA, all parties, including - the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors agreed to the last minute postponement. To respond to the lawsuit filed by iMEGA in June, an extension for the deadline was already granted for the defendants. Now the hearing has been set back as well.

The initial court date, which was supposed to be on Sept. 4, did not include oral arguments. Judge Mary L. Cooper will now hear the oral arguments on the new date, including a petition introduced by iMEGA for a temporary restraining order against the UIGEA implementation made by the government until judgment has been made in the lawsuit.

According to iMEGA founder, Joe Brennan Jr., the restraining order was meant to prevent the government, during the grace period before it responds to the lawsuit, from moving further forward with the implementation of the UIGEA, as well as to force the U.S. Department of Justice to respond faster to the lawsuit. On the new date of the hearing the government will also have a chance to give its oral argument for dismissal of the case as well.

On its Web site the organization says: "Given the court's willingness to hear oral arguments, iMEGA feels that a dismissal would be unlikely".

The extension, like iMEGA also noted, gives their legal team the chance to submit a brief in response to the U.S. government's opposition to the restraining order and the motion to dismiss.

The lawsuit's intent is to encourage regulation and taxation of Internet gaming as an alternative to an outright ban on the industry. iMEGA feels that, if allowed to stand, the UIGEA would create a bad precedent that would chill innovation and the growth of e-commerce by U.S. firms, causing the flow of those types of industries and jobs out of the United States.