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EA Antitrust Suit

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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.

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).

What Is This Class Action About?
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.

Who Are Class Members?
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.

What Should I Do? (Getting Further Information)
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.

To Remain a Class Member
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.

To Exclude Yourself from the Class
(Deadline to Request Exclusion: June 25, 2011)
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:
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

For further information about excluding yourself from the class go to the following website:
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.).




Anyone else get this email?
 

Mole

Mole since '97
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This is fuckin stupid. They signed an agreement with the NFL so they could EXCLUSIVELY make NFL games. They should be suing the NFL as well.
 

BUTT

Kreese
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They have no case here because they price these games just the same as they would if there was no competition. As far as I know, Madden comes out every year at $50 for the Wii version and $60 for PS3 and 360, which is the standard price for major releases. It's too bad that only one company can make NFL games, but that's the world we live in now. I'm not sure the courts could take away EA's exclusive right to the NFL any more than they could take away THQ's exclusive right to WWE.
 

Mazto

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Yeah, the only way I could see this getting any legwork would be if EA was charging a sizable difference from other new releases, but like Kreese said, it's pretty status quo for pricing. The 2k Series would be in the same range, so we weren't "over-charged"
 

AlaskanHero

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The only argument I could see, and it isn't much of an argument at all, is that 2k5 was only $20 the year it came out and EA signed that exclusivity deal right after.
 
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AlaskanHero said:
The only argument I could see, and it isn't much of an argument at all, is that 2k5 was only $20 the year it came out and EA signed that exclusivity deal right after.

Wasn't that just a big fuck you to EA after finding out EA had signed the deal with the NFL?
 

BUTT

Kreese
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No, it was an attempt to gain some market share against Madden after being crushed for the past couple of years. It worked, and that's why EA made the exclusivity deal.
 

Baby Shoes

Baby Shoes
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Just got this in my e-mail. I don't know what they expect to get. $5 coupon?
 

Broward83

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What can be argued is that EA knowingly went into this deal with the NFL to create an unfair market in the realm of realistic football simulation. Clearly after 2k priced their game at 20 and started to gain market in a realm that EA had dominated for quite some time, they took the steps to "protect" that market by cutting out all other participants. In doing this they had eliminated any and all competition and can be said used this "contract" to begin to become lazy with their product and release a product into the market that was far below the previous entries they and others had put forth into the market; knowing that there would be little to no consequences for said action as they could make whatever type of product they truly wanted to without losing ground to a competitor.

In that, you could clearly argue that for a few years, Madden did regress and became nothing more than a full priced retail "roster update" that the consumer would be forced to buy in order to keep in-step with the rest of their peers. So with that, EA could face quite the battle in court as this legal team could also tie in the current cases being brought against EA in their dealings with the NCAA and the NFL's retired players association (by saying that EA has knowingly acted in "shady" business deals in the past and present) to force EA to settle out of court.

...sadly, this seems nothing more than a money grab situation and nothing will come from this as I doubt they've got any sort of real thought out case save for something about how 2k5 was gdlk and Madden is t3h sux0rz.

Also, can a mod piece in whatever comments are in the current NCAA / Madden thread regarding this topic as I already posted the lawsuit e-mail in it prior to this thread?
 

Danville_Wrestling

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Yeah, I got this in my e-mail earlier in the week. I hope that it creates some real change, but I'm not hopeful. However, 2K's games were usually cheaper than their EA counterparts and that's when we started to see more exclusive deals for EA. It's definitely a prohibition on competition.
 

oldskool

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The NFL is the one that wanted the exclusivity. EA's just the one who bid the most & won the agreement.

If EA hadn't won, Disney was the #2 bidder. I don't know why they were even bidding.
 

The Amazing Rando

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oldskool said:
The NFL is the one that wanted the exclusivity. EA's just the one who bid the most & won the agreement.

If EA hadn't won, Disney was the #2 bidder. I don't know why they were even bidding.

Disney owns ESPN, so that could potentially have had something to do with it. No idea what they would have done with it, but I wouldn't put it past the Mouse to want to own an entire sport, at least on some level.
 

oldskool

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Possible.

But even if Disney wins, they probably open up their own bidding war to outside developers to make games for the NFL license and once again EA would've a) been able to outbid 2K and b) been able to leverage their rights to the more mainstream Madden name as far as brand recognition, and we're pretty much in the same boat.
 
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