ANTITRUST ANYONE?

June 30, 2009

By now most of you who are really interested in Sports Law and antitrust issues are already well read on the yesterday’s big news that American Needle v. National Football League will go before the Supreme Court. For those of you who like Sports Law and negotiations, but are scared away from complex issues such as antitrust, we will break it down into the simplest terms: 
antitrust laws exist to prevent businesses from monopolizing a given market.

American Needle filed an antitrust challenge when the NFL signed an exclusive agreement with Reebok in 2001, thus closing the door on American Needle’s chance of continuing it’s lucrative business of selling NFL merchandise.

American Needle, Inc. had lost on appeal in the 7th Circuit and sought review by the Supreme Court.  They just want the Court to let them back into the NFL cap business.  More unusually, the NFL won the appeal, but also wanted a decision by the Supreme Court.  They hope for a ruling that the NFL is a "single entity" rather than 32 teams each being considered as an individual business.  If not a single entity, the various teams would remain subject to antitrust laws, which currently results in a considerable amount of litigation.  Baseball, enjoying the sole antitrust exemption in sports, is on the sidelines on this one, but the NBA and NHL are highly interested in a "single entity" ruling for the same reasons as the NFL.

For expert antitrust commentary on the case link to:

http://antitrustcommentary.com/