November 12, 2019 Antitrust / Class Actions / Litigation / NCAA / Rights

NCAA Student-Athlete Pay Rules, Opposition Grows

On October 30, 2019, the plaintiffs in the Alston v. NCAA case gained support in the form of an amicus curiae brief from the Open Markets Institute, Change to Win, the National Employment Law Project, economics professor Marshall Steinbaum, and law professors Sanjukta Paul and Veena Dubal. In the brief submitted to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the amici argue that the U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of California, Claudia Wilken, reached “an overly narrow” decision based upon …

June 18, 2018 Antitrust / Baseball / Legislation / Litigation / Rights

SCOTUS Declines Opportunity to Reconsider MLB Antitrust Exemption

Major League Baseball’s immunity from antitrust violations under the Sherman Act has been called an “anomaly.” It has also been consistently upheld by courts since 1922, when it was unanimously affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States. The exemption was codified by Congress in the Curt Flood Act of 1998, maintaining an exemption for MLB and its clubs when conducting the “business of baseball” and providing more freedom to players seeking free agency and salary arbitration.

Despite striking out with lower courts, two …

October 16, 2017 Golf / Litigation / PGA

Golf Caddies Ask for Mulligan in Suit Over PGA Tour Bib-Ads

On October 12, 2017, golf caddies urged the Ninth Circuit to revive their proposed antitrust class action against PGA Tour Inc. for allegedly exploiting them as walking advertisements. The golf caddies claimed the lower court erred by using evidence outside of their complaint to interpret the contracts and that they had no chance to respond to the court’s arguments.

In their original lawsuit filed by over 80 caddies in February 2015, the caddies alleged that PGA Tour earns $50 million a year from a policy …

August 29, 2017 Baseball / MLB

Baseball Scouts Strike Out on Claims League Conspires on Low Wages

Former Kansas City Royals scout Jordan Wyckoff and ex-Colorado Rockies scout Darwin Cox urged the Second Circuit on August 24, 2017 to narrowly construe Major League Baseball’s long-held antitrust exemption to only those functions essential to the holding of actual professional baseball games. The three-judge panel was skeptical of the scouts’ oral arguments.

The dispute came up on appeal after the class action suit on behalf of 1,600 scouts was dismissed in September 2016 by the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The complaint alleged that …