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US: NCAA hit with new antitrust lawsuit

By  |  March 17, 2014

Antitrust lawyer Jeffrey Kessler has reportedly filed a class action lawsuit against collegiate athletics group the NCAA on behalf of college football and men’s basketball athletes.

According to reports, the suit accuses the NCAA and the five largest college conferences of price-fixing, restricting competition by capping scholarship dollar amounts. Kessler described the suit as “a frontal attack on the basic unfairness of the system.”

The representative reportedly cited the millions and hundreds of millions of dollars being made by NCAA Tournament coaches and schools, sponsors and others, while “the only group that is not receiving any benefit are these athletes.”

Reports say that the plaintiffs are using an antitrust stance to have athletes be paid beyond their scholarship funds, using “price-fixing” to describe the policies that limit compensation and calling the NCAA and schools a “cartel” that illegally caps athletes’ pay.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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