CBS refuses to pay licensing fee to NFL Player's Association

Photo by Lenny Ignelzi (c) 1995 Associated Press


By Kate Fagut


According to Yahoo! Sports, CBS interactive has filed a federal lawsuit against the NFL Player’s Association. The lawsuit, filed in Minneapolis, MN district court was in response to a threat that the NFL Player’s Association would sue them for failing to pay licensing fees. The fees pertained to player statistics used by CBS in their interactive fantasy football league.

“The Players Association may not seek to control the use of player statistics in fantasy games and may not continue to extract money from CBS Interactive for the use of publicly available football statistics,” said CBS interactive.

Previously, CBS had paid a licensing fee to the player’s association, however, since the expiration of their deal on February 29th, no fees have been paid. CBS felt they were no longer required to pay licensing fees after the ruling of a similar case involving fantasy baseball.

The fantasy baseball case arose when Major League Baseball players demanded licensing fees from a Missouri-based company. The case, which was ruled in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, determined no licensing fees were necessary for player statistics. The case was declined review by the United States Supreme Court.

In a SportsBusiness Journal article by Eric Fisher, CBS sought to uphold their first amendment rights over the union’s rights of publicity and declared the union in violation of the Sherman Act.