Electronic Arts Class Action Lawsuit Regarding Football Titles

[James Steele]

I got an email about this today. I don't know the validity of it and will look into it more once I post this thread.

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<center>GEOFFREY PECOVER and ANDREW OWENS v. ELECTRONIC ARTS INC.
U.S. District Court (N.D. Cal. - Oakland Div.)
Case No. 08-cv-02820 CW

If You Purchased Certain Electronic Arts Brand Football Video Games
Between January 1, 2005 to the Present
You May Be a Class Member. </center>
Membership as a class member in the Electronic Arts Litigation is the result of a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Oakland Division (Case No. 08-cv-02820 CW).

<center>What Is This Class Action About?</center> The class action lawsuit alleges violations of California's antitrust and consumer protection laws in connection with the sale of certain football video games. Plaintiffs, purchasers of Electronic Arts' football video games, claim that Defendant Electronic Arts entered into a series of exclusive licenses with the National Football League (NFL), National Football League Players' Association (NFLPA), National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), and Arena Football League (AFL), which Plaintiffs claim foreclosed competition in an alleged football video game market. Plaintiffs allege that this series of exclusive licenses caused customers who purchased certain football video games to be overcharged.
Defendant Electronic Arts has denied any liability and all allegations of misconduct. The Court has not decided whether the Defendants did anything wrong, and this Notice is not an expression of any opinion by the Court about the merits of any of the claims or defenses asserted by any party to this litigation.

<center>Who Are Class Members?</center> The Class includes all persons who, during the period January 1, 2005 to the present, purchased the Madden NFL, NCAA Football, or Arena Football League brand video games published by Electronic Arts with a release date of January 1, 2005 to the present. Excluded from the class are purchasers of software for mobile devices, persons purchasing directly from Electronic Arts, persons purchasing used copies of the relevant football video games, and Electronic Arts' employees, officers, directors, legal representatives, and wholly or partly owned subsidiaries or affiliated companies.

<center>What Should I Do? (Getting Further Information)</center> If you believe that you may be a class member (see above "Who Are Class Members"), you should get more detailed information about the class action and its potential effect on you and your rights. Further information can be obtained by going to the following website: www.easportslitigation.com. Additional information about the lawsuit may be obtained from Plaintiffs' Counsel website at www.hbsslaw.com, or by calling Plaintiffs' Counsel at 1-206-623-7292.

<center>To Remain a Class Member</center> If you are a class member and you do nothing, you will be bound by the court's rulings in the lawsuit, including any final Settlement or Judgment.

<center>To Exclude Yourself from the Class</center> <center>(Deadline to Request Exclusion: June 25, 2011)</center> If you are a class member and you want to exclude yourself from the class and keep your right to sue Defendant, you must take further action before June 25, 2011. By that date, you must request exclusion in writing to this address:
<center>Electronic Arts Litigation Exclusion
P.O. Box 8090
San Rafael CA 94912-8090

Or submit a request for exclusion electronically at the following website: www.easportslitigation.com (http://www.easportslitigation.com/)

For further information about excluding yourself from the class go to the following website:
www.easportslitigation.com (http://www.easportslitigation.com/)

Please do not telephone or address inquiries to the Court.
April 6, 2011. By Order of the U.S. District Court (N.D. Cal. - Oakland Div.).</center>


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[James Steele]

Articles about the story:

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/06/class-action-suit-filed-against-ea-sports-over-football-monopoly/

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/madden-nfl-11/news.html?sid=6285811

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/04/06/madden-class-action-lawsuit-goes-ahead.aspx

[weather vane]

got the same email... so confused

[Kane Knight]

got the same email... so confused
:rofl:

[Next Big Thing]

The only people who would see any money from a settlement would be the lawyers if it even goes that far.

[Kalyx triaD]

Pfft, I never purchased a football game. DELE-ETE

[Vox Populi]

That's not how class action lawsuits work. We'd all see a set sum.

[Razzamajazz]

so somebody sued because they thought the games cost too much?

[Xero]

So, basically, this is saying that people were basically forced to buy a video game at an industry-standard price due to licensing, and that isn't fair.

Get the fuck out of here.

[DaveBrawl]

These people sued because they don't understand how to update NFL 2k5 with current rosters.

I got this email earlier after reading this topic, had a good laugh.

[Next Big Thing]

So, basically, this is saying that people were basically forced to buy a video game at an industry-standard price due to licensing, and that isn't fair.

Get the fuck out of here.

Ahhh but that's what gives those scummy lawyers and bastards stupid enough to think they've hit the jackpot hope Xero.

By claiming that EA sports has a monopoly on the NFL and college football titles, there is no industry-standard price... Just EA's price. The precedent comes from when ESPN sold it's NFL football game for like $25 and forced EA to drop the price on Madden. That next year, EA got the exclusive rights.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Where's the lawsuit against 2KSports for getting the Xbox license for baseball games? Surely, we have a bigger case for that: 2K Baseball and the Show rules.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

2k Sports have a console-wide exclusive license, but there's an odd proviso that let's hardware manufacturers still create MLB games for their own systems.

A better analogy would be WWE games.

[Xero]

An even better analogy would be a certain company (MLB, NFL, a movie IP, doesn't really matter what) only licensing their clothing to one manufacturer exclusively after giving it to five different manufacturers. That isn't a "monopoly". That's the license owner's right to do what they want with their license and sell it for however much they want. No one "forced" the NFL into the deal with EA. EA was just the highest bidder, and rightly so.

And other companies released non-licensed football games (Blitz, Backbreaker), so it's not like there weren't even other football games out there.

[Funky Fly]

Dunno, Madden is gay anyway.

[Emperor Smeat]

The last big class action lawsuit involving a game or game series ended up paying out something around $15-$35 for everyone involved which didn't even cover the cost of buying the game new at the time. The lawyers made millions of dollars from the GTA San Andreas "Hot Coffee" lawsuit.

I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up like game boycotts where people end up keep buying the Madden games in the future or games from EA.

Only reason NFL 2k5 was $20 was due to Sega/Take-Two eating the losses to gain sales away from Madden and people mistakenly believing future NFL 2k games would be cheap.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

I just got this email today. I don't see this case having any merit whatsoever. There wasn't a monopoly on football games only an exclusive deal between the NFL, the NFLPA (still binding even though they are not a group anymore) and EA Sports.

The real monopoly is MLB2k series! Not only do they have the exclusive MLB rights they are the only baseball game for the 360. We 360 users are forced to hear taunts about how great the Show is. Waiting for EA Sports to be able to bring back MVP Baseball if they choose to do so.

Anybody who thought 20 dollars was going to be the standard price if there was a 2k6 is an idiot. NFL2k5 thought they had a better product than Madden was going to have. So, they lowered it for a one time "hail mary" to try to break up the dominance of the Madden Franchise. It was a great game and I played it until I lost the disc. I loved the Chris Berman post game with the Bermanisms. It was good, but it wasn't a Madden beater good.

EA Locked up the NFL and then 2k locked up the MLB. Pretty stupid to sue over something 2K ended up doing too.

If we get anything it'll be more than we deserve this case is moronic.