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Update:
- A proposed class of student-athletes are fighting back against a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit targeting the Ivy League and its member universities.
- The Ivy League student-athletes claim they adequately alleged the athletic conference overcharged and undercompensated them by refusing to offer athletic scholarships.
- The Ivy League Council of Presidents and its seven member schools argue that, by not providing athletic scholarships, they increase competition and cultivate a culture of equality.
- The student-athletes argue the Ivy League uses a version of the NCAA’s now-discredited “amateurism defense,” which the Supreme Court rejected in 2021.
Ivy League university class action overview:
- Who: Two student-athletes are suing eight Ivy League universities.
- Why: The plaintiffs allege the colleges have engaged in a price-fixing scheme to raise the cost of education and suppress the compensation for student-athletes.
- Where: The Ivy League university class action lawsuit was filed in a Connecticut federal court.
(March 13, 2023)
Two student-athletes are suing eight Ivy League universities alleging the elite colleges engaged in a price-fixing scheme to raise the cost of education and deny compensation for student-athletes.
Plaintiffs Tamenang Choh and Grace Kirk filed the class action lawsuit against the trustees of Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale universities, as well as the The Ivy League Council of Presidents, on March 7 in a Connecticut federal court. The plaintiffs, both student-athletes, allege violations of antitrust laws.
According to the lawsuit, the top-tier colleges collude to deny Division I athletes with athletic scholarships or other forms of payment for the athletic services they provide.
“Absent the Ivy League agreement, these schools would determine unilaterally, and in competition with each other, how many athletic scholarships to provide, by sport, and in what amounts, and how much to compensate (either directly or through reimbursement of tuition, room, and board, or both) for athletic services,” the complaint states.
Athletes were not offered compensation for their athletic contributions, lawsuit alleges
Choh played for Brown’s men’s basketball team from 2017 to 2022, and Kirk has played for Brown’s women’s basketball team since 2020, the lawsuit states.
They each were recruited to play a sport at one of the Ivy League colleges and both received full cost-of-attendance athletic scholarship offers from at least one other Division I college.
As a result of the Ivy League Agreement, however, Brown awarded Plaintiffs only need-based financial aid that did not cover either of their full costs of attendance — tuition, room, board and incidental expenses — and paid them no other compensation or reimbursement for their athletic services to the school, they say.
“Defendants’ price-fixing agreement is per se illegal. It is a naked restraint of trade among horizontal competitors,” the lawsuit alleges.
The plaintiffs are looking to represent all Ivy League Athletes recruited to play a sport by one of the universities while undertaking one of the University’s undergraduate programs, in the past four years.
They are suing under the Sherman Act and seek damages, and an injunction against the alleged anti-competitive scheme, fees, costs and a jury trial.
In 2022, the University of Pennsylvania established a settlement fund of $4.5 million to resolve a breach-of-contract class action lawsuit with its students relating to insufficient tuition refunds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What do you think of the allegations in this Ivy League lawsuit? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiffs are represented by Stephen M. Kindseth, James M. Moriarty and John L. Cesaroni of Zeisler & Zeisler PC; Eric L. Cramer, Patrick F. Madden, Alan K. Cotler, Najah Jacobs, Robert E. Litan, Dan Walker and Hope Brinn of Berger Montague; and Velvel Freedman, Edward Normand and Stephen Lagos of Freedman Normand Friedland LLP.
The Ivy League class action lawsuit is Tamenang Choh, et al. v. Brown University, et al., Case No. 3:23-cv-00305, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
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