NCAA, EA Class Action Lawsuit Settlement Nearing Approval

A proposed class action lawsuit settlement could be approved as early as Thursday in a case involving allegations the  National Collegiate Athletic Association and Electronic Arts violated  student-athletes’ rights by using their likenesses in video games without permission or payment.

At issue is how Class Members should be notified. At a hearing,  U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken said attorneys should send notices, and then checks, to Class Members, rather than requiring class members to fill out claim forms. The judge also recommended removing complicated legal language from the proposed Class Member notices.

Wilken also noted that the proposed notices do not reference a related class action lawsuit brought by former college athlete Ed O’Bannon Jr. that is not included in the proposed settlement. But, the judge noted, that was an antitrust lawsuit. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said  they are still determining which databases to use to locate Class Members.

If the attorneys for the defendants, the NCAA and EA, make the judge’s recommended changes, Wilken indicated she could rule on the proposed settlement before the July 24 approval hearing.

In 2009, lead Plaintiffs O’Bannon and Sam Keller filed separate class action lawsuits alleging the organizations unlawfully required collegiate athletes to sign away their publicity rights and then made profits from using the athletes’ names and likenesses in popular video games.

In September, EA offered a proposed settlement amounting to $40 million in the Keller class action lawsuit. In June, the NCAA filed a proposed class action settlement in the Keller case as well, offering $20 million to dispose of the claims. Neither of these proposed settlements affect the O’Bannon lawsuit, which alleges that EA, Collegiate Licensing and the NCAA unlawfully required college athletes to sign release forms that took away the athletes’ rights to license their names, images or likenesses, and that EA then profited off of using college athletes’ names and likenesses in video games.

The lead plaintiffs are represented by Steve W. Berman, Robert B. Carey and Leonard W. Aragon of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, Michael D. Hausfeld, Hilary K. Scherrer, Sathya S. Gosselin, Michael P. Lehmann and Arthur N. Bailey Jr. of Hausfeld LLP, Stuart M. Paynter and Celeste H.G. Boyd of the Paynter Law Firm PLLC, Dennis J. Drasco and Arthur M. Owens of Lum Drasco & Positan LLC, and Keith McKenna of the McKenna Law Firm LLC.

The cases in the NCAA Antitrust Class Action Lawsuits are Samuel Keller, et al. v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, et al., Case No 4:09-cv-01967, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and O’Bannon Jr., et al. v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, et al., Case No. 4:09-cv-03329, both in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: According to a post dated 3/11/15 on the Settlement Administrator’s website, claims are now being accepted. The deadline to file a claim is July 2, 2015. For more information about how to file a claim, visit the EA, NCAA Video Game Likeness Class Action Settlement.