NCAA, EA Reach Class Action Settlements with Student Athletes

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Last week and early this week there were two major developments in class action settlements with Electronic Artists Inc., Collegiate Licensing Co., and the National Collegiate Athletic Association over claims they violated student-athletes’ rights to profit from their likenesses on video games.

In 2009, lead plaintiffs Ed O’Bannon Jr. and Sam Keller filed separate class action lawsuits alleging that 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.

Last week, as a part of s $40 million proposed class action settlement agreement attempting to end the two class action lawsuits against EA, Collegiate Licensing, and the NCAA, attorneys sought up to $15.7 million in fees and costs. The proposed settlement agreement will end litigation alleging  collegiate athletes’ likenesses were illegally used by the video game company and licensing company to make and sell the popular “NCAA Football” and “NCAA Basketball” games. If approved, the class action settlement agreement would certify three subclasses of athletes alleging antitrust and right of publicity claims dating as far back as 2005.

The NCAA was excluded from this settlement agreement; however, on Monday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association agreed to pay $20 million to settle claims made by former collegiate athlete Sam Keller. The NCAA said the proposed class action lawsuit settlement funds would go to Division I men’s basketball and Division I Bowl Subdivision football athletes who attended specific universities during the period when the video games were sold. The case was set to go to trial in March 2015.

The NCAA’s proposed settlement did not extend to the other class action lawsuit where, lead plaintiff and former college athlete Ed O’Bannon Jr. also alleged that EA, Collegiate Licensing and the NCAA unlawfully required college athletes to sign release forms that took away the athletes rights license their names, images or likenesses. The case further alleged that EA then profited off of using college athletes names and likenesses in video games, such as the popular “Madden.”

The O’Bannon class action lawsuit seeks an injunction that would block the defendants from requiring college athletes to sign away their publicity rights in order to play sports in college, despite the group’s repeated attempts to have the case linked up with the publicity suit and delayed until next year.

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.