EA Sports has settled with Ed O’Bannon and other current and past college football players.
Electronic Arts has agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to current and former student-athletes, resolving its liability in a lawsuit brought by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon. EA has put an end to this lawsuit and also stepped away from the college video game business for good. It just canceled its college football game and exited the college basketball game years ago.
"This is a historic settlement," said lead attorney Michael Hausfeld. "This settlement represents an acknowledgment that the NCAA's rules barring payment to current and former players cannot stand."
The settlement leaves the NCAA as the sole defendant in O'Bannon's antitrust case, which alleges a conspiracy by the NCAA and its member schools, to license and sell the names, images, and likeness of current and former student-athletes without compensation to those student-athletes. The NCAA and its co-conspirators have collectively reaped billions of dollars in revenue from the license and sale of game footage, video games, photographs, apparel, trading cards, and other memorabilia containing the names, images, and likenesses of current and former student-athletes without paying a cent to those whose names, images, and likenesses were used. A decision by the judge as to whether to certify the class is pending.
