WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The newly-organized World Skating Federation (WSF) filed a lawsuit against the InternationalSkating Union (ISU) Friday, citing "anticompetitive conduct" by the ISU.

    The ISU and its president Ottavio Cinquanta were improperly maintaining "a monopoly over the sport of international figure skating," said the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York.

    "In this lawsuit, we allege that Ottavio Cinquanta, fearing a new democratic organization and fighting to protect his autocraticcontrol of the sport and its lucrative television contracts, responded by threatening to 'blacklist' or banish anyone connectedwith the WSF," said Ron Pfenning, the WSF's acting president and an ISU and Olympic judge.

    "By filing this lawsuit, we seek to subject the ISU's anticompetitive conduct to judicial review.

    "I am confident that justice will be done, and that those who subscribe to the WSF's principles will be allowed to freely express their views in the near future."

    Cinquanta said the ISU "prefers to focus on the Grand Prix final," and reserved any other comments.

    The WSF was created in March during the ISU's world championships in Washington to challenge ISU as the sport's world governing body. Olympic medalists Dick Button, Scott Hamilton andPaul Wylie were all involved in the founding of the WSF. Enditem