Kevin Hart's Hartbeat loses bid to move its trade secrets case out of public view

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has refused to move Kevin Hart's dispute with two former employees out of the public court system and into private arbitration, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.

Hartbeat, the media company Hart founded, had asked for the case against Eric Eddings and Lesley Gwam to be heard in arbitration. The court found that while the agreements both had signed contained arbitration provisions, the two had made what it called a persuasive showing that those provisions were unconscionable and could not be enforced against them.

The motion was denied. The case stays on the public record.

That is a ruling about venue rather than about the substance of the claim, and no court has yet examined the underlying allegations.

What Hartbeat alleges

The company sued Eddings, hired in 2022, and Gwam, hired in 2023, claiming they obtained confidential information about its podcast division while employed and then used it to launch a competing podcast business.

Hartbeat further claims they used that information to build a pitch deck to raise millions of dollars for the new venture. Its suit seeks an injunction preventing them from launching it.

Both deny using anything they learned at Hartbeat and have pointed to the industry experience each held before joining the company.

None of the allegations has been tested. The court has made no finding on whether any confidential information was taken or used.

Why the ruling matters commercially

Arbitration clauses are standard in American entertainment employment contracts, and they exist to keep disputes out of view. Proceedings are confidential, filings do not enter the public record, and outcomes are rarely reported.

A finding that such a clause is unconscionable means a court has concluded it was so one-sided or so unfairly presented that enforcing it would be unjust. Californian courts apply that test more readily than most, weighing both the circumstances in which an agreement was signed and the fairness of its terms.

The consequence for Hartbeat is that its podcast division's confidential information, the basis of its own claim, becomes the subject of open litigation. Trade secret cases carry that difficulty for the party bringing them: establishing that something was secret and valuable usually requires describing it in filings anyone can read.

It also means the terms of the employment agreements themselves are now before a public court, having been found defective enough to be unenforceable against two of the people who signed them.

Hart's business

Hartbeat was formed in 2022 from the merger of Hart's production company Laugh Out Loud with HartBeat Productions. It produces film, television, podcasts, live events and branded content, and has partnerships with Netflix and other distributors.

Hart has built one of the larger entertainment businesses owned by a Black founder in the United States, alongside interests in fitness, food and spirits. He co-founded the tequila brand Gran Coramino with Juan Beckmann Vidal of Jose Cuervo in 2022, and holds stakes in restaurant and consumer ventures.

The podcast division at the centre of the dispute sits in a segment that has drawn heavy investment from established media companies and independent producers over the past five years, with talent and executives moving frequently between them.

This is not Hart's only current litigation. He filed a separate claim in June against a former assistant, alleging breach of contract.

Neither Hartbeat nor lawyers for Eddings and Gwam commented on the ruling. No trial date has been set.