Antitrust and Labor

You are expected to make significant comments, any pertinent insight from your current employment about how you fulfill the holding, disagreement with the holding with rationale, etc. You should use relevant legal terms in your analysis. What’s your opinion ? (Plwase see below)

US Football League (USFL) v. National Football League(NFL)

842 F.2d 1335 (2nd Cir. 1988)
Facts: The plaintiff, the United States Football League (USFL) was an American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985; the defendant National Football League (NFL) is a football league founded in 1920. The NFL has multimillion-dollar network and cable television contracts with ABC, CBS and NBC. The USFL was able to obtain multimillion-dollar network and cable television contracts with ABC and ESPN. The NFL owners made 14 million from television revenue, the USFL made less than 2 million. The NFL teams averaged almost a million dollars in profit, USFL teams lost three and a half million.
The USFL, after losing almost $200 million in its first three years in existence, moved from a spring schedule to a fall schedule beginning in 1986. But because the league was unable to secure a network television contract for that season (fall), it went broke. The USFL is seeking damages of $1.701 billion and appropriate injunctive relief (a remedy that restrains a party from doing certain acts or requires a party to act in a certain way).  
The USFL accused the older established League (NFL) of two things, first a conspiracy to put the USFL out of business and second unfair monopoly of the market for professional football, by among other things, jeopardizing the USFL broadcast contract with the main television networks, and signing multiyear contracts with the three major television networks. The USFL then filed suit in the Southern District of New York against the NFL, the USFL alleged that the NFL violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1, 2. 
A jury in district court held that the NFL had violated Section 2, the jury found that the NFL had willfully acquired or maintained monopoly power in a market consisting of major-league professional football in the United States. The jury also found NFL’s unlawful monopolization of a relevant market had caused injury to the plaintiffs’ business or property. Despite these findings, the jury chose to award only nominal damages of $1.00 as a result of the NFL’s unlawful conduct. Additionally, the jury rejected the remainder of the USFL’s claims and primary argument that the NFL had denied the USFL access to the much-needed resource of network television.
Issue: Is the NFL liable for all the damages suffered by the USFL?. Was the $1.00 in damages enough compensation?. 
Ruling (Holding): No, the NFL did not control access to the three major television networks; and the NFL did not interfere either with the USFL’s ability to obtain a fall television contract or with its spring television contracts.
No, the jury awarded the USFL only $1.00 in damages, however, an amount that, even when tripled, was no consolation for the USFL. 
Rationale: The jury’s finding of illegal monopolization of a market of major-league professional football was based upon evidence of NFL attempts to interfere with USFL owners and an NFL Supplemental Draft (Player Selection Meeting) of USFL players. Also the NFL’s move to a forty-nine-man list; and finally the NFL activity targeting specific USFL franchises such as the Oakland Invaders. The anti-competitive activities on which the jury based its verdict were not of sufficient impact to justify a large damages verdict or sweeping injunctive relief.
The jury was clear by the evidence to find that the NFL’s existing contracts with the three networks were not an anticompetitive barrier. The jury relied on various evidence showing that the USFL was the main cause of its own downfall. The USFL’s failure to secure a fall network contract was the result of the independent judgment of each network that the USFL was an inferior product, and of the USFL’s self-destructive strategy of forcing a merger with the NFL. There was ample evidence that the USFL failed because it did not make the efforts that bring credibility, stability, and public recognition to a sports league. The NFL contracts were not exclusionary either.  
The USFL made bad decisions, was unstable and did not present a more attractive product than the one already established by the NFL in previous decades. A company that is just starting out cannot hope to outperform those that have been in the market for years if they do not present a better and more competitive product.
The USFL lost a major portion of its case and did not achieve all of the benefits it sought to achieve by the litigation, and the USFL did not prove any damage with regard to the claim. A firm with lawful monopoly power has no general duty to help its competitors (Lexis, FIU Library, 842F.2d1335). A plaintiff’s own anticompetitive conduct generally cannot be raised as a defense to liability in an antitrust action (Lexis, FIU Library, 842F.2d1335)
Important Information:
In 1980, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act to break up business trust and monopolies. Section 1 of the Act prohibits every contract, combination…or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states [interstate commerce] (15 U.SC. 1). Under the statute violators pay three times the damage suffered. Section 2 of the Act makes it a felony, to monopolize, attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire…to monopolize (15 U.S.C. 2). (Cotten & Wolohan, Law for Recreational and Sports Managers, Antitrust Law, page 534)
 Only a few Section 2 cases challenge competitor leagues over the practices of established leagues as monopolistic. The USFL v NFL was one of those cases but only awarded nominal damages. (Cotten & Wolohan, Law for Recreational and Sports Managers, Antitrust Law, page 537)
“Congress exempts sports league’s national television deals from antitrust liability (15. USC 1291-1294). The statute grants professional leagues an exemption to pool their television rights when negotiating league-wide television packages. (Cotten & Wolohan, Law for Recreational and Sports Managers, Antitrust Law, Section 7.10, page 538)
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