The Supreme Court Finds NFL Licensing Activities Subject to Rule of Reason Antitrust Scrutiny
Today, in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League, et al., No. 08-661, the Supreme Court unanimously held that professional sports teams in the same league cannot immunize their joint licensing decisions from antitrust scrutiny by authorizing a single entity to make such decisions. Instead, the Court found such decisions subject to the “Rule of Reason” analysis because the joint venture was an instrumentality of otherwise separate decision makers.