Gamers Sue EA over NFL License Exclusivity
The complaint focuses on EA’s actions since 2004, when 2K Sports‘ NFL 2K5 was released at $19.99 selling over 2.9 million copies in the United States. In response, EA dropped the price of Madden 05 from $49.95 to $29.95.
“This vigorous competition benefited consumers,” according to the suit. “Electronic Arts could have continued to compete by offering a lower price and/or a higher quality product. Instead, Electronic Arts quickly entered into a series of exclusive agreements with the only viable sports football associations in the United States: the National Football League, the Arena Football League, and NCAA Football.”
Since 2K Sports was out of the game in 2006, EA raised the price of Madden 06 back up to $49.95.
The plantiffs are asking for restitution and damages for those who purchased an EA Sports football game since August 2005, “disgorgement of all profits made as a result of anticompetitive actions, and that the infringing agreements be declared null and void.”