Fans File Antitrust Suit Against NFL To Allow Teams on BlueSky
Fans of the Cleveland Browns and the Seattle Seahawks working together to right a perceived wrong committed against the New England Patriots may seem far-fetched, but love of football can make for strange bedfellows. The National Football League (NFL) finds itself facing an antitrust lawsuit that seeks to make its teams available on social media platforms other than X (formerly Twitter).
Whether the fledgling BlueSky social media platform will be the beneficiary of any ruling remains to be seen. The NFL has a well-earned reputation for ferociously guarding its product and using terms and conditions to its advantage. For now, it faces two very determined fans across the line of scrimmage.
Nothing but Blue Skies From Now On?
The NFL has long used social media platforms to its advantage. All 32 teams maintain a presence on X and NFL accounts are used to provide highlights, breaking news, and other types of engagement.
The New England Patriots had established a presence on Bluesky before they were ordered by the NFL to take the account down. The other 31 teams were also told not to post on BlueSky.
BlueSky runs on an Authenticated Transfer Protocol (AT Protocol), which supports many different kinds of service through a decentralized social networking protocol. It's become a refuge of sorts for people who find X's lack of moderation off-putting, as its Terms of Service oppose harassment, hate groups, and terror groups.
It's experienced an explosion of growth and recently topped 28 million users. This is still a small fraction of X's approximately 650 million users. Fans of the NFL, including the plaintiffs Patrick Brown and Collin Vincent, hoped to find the teams and NFL content on a social media platform other than X.
The NFL has partnership agreements with X, YouTube, and TikTok. In their antitrust suit, Brown and Vincent allege the NFL is forcing the teams to engage in an illegal group boycott of BlueSky and other social media platforms. They charge the NFL is restricting their teams from participating on the service until they can reach a financially beneficial agreement or partnership with BlueSky.
The plaintiffs note that the NFL must abide by antitrust laws and that by providing specified content only to X, they are depriving fans who wish to avoid X the right of access to the material. As there's no charge to have an account on X, the NFL's content doesn't have the right to exclusivity that a paid subscription would entail.
Claiming the NFL's BlueSky ban as a violation of free speech and commerce under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, Brown and Vincent are looking to have an injunction placed against the league's forbiddance of participation on BlueSky and other social media outlets. They assert that adding additional outlets would cause no harm to the NFL's product.
Mess With the Bills (or Vikings or Rams) and You Get the Horns
If past performance is any indicator, the NFL will move to have the case dismissed. Failing that, it will try to use its Terms and Conditions to have the case forced into arbitration. The plaintiffs sidestepped one issue by filing in New York County, New York, as the NFL's terms demand.
The NFL terms dictate that any case that doesn't qualify for small claims court must be settled through binding arbitration. The plaintiffs can opt out of arbitration within 30 days of agreeing to arbitration.
The full legal might of the NFL being focused on two football fans might seem a mismatch. While they are unlikely to refuse if the court awards it to them, the suit is not specifically seeking monetary damages from the NFL. The plaintiffs want to interact with their favorite teams on a platform that is not X. Soon they'll find out if their Hail Mary is a touchdown or gets intercepted.
Related Resources
- The Arbitration Process (FindLaw's Arbitration Law)
- What Is Antitrust Law and Trade Regulation? (FindLaw's Learn About the Law)
- Jury Finds NFL Liable for Antitrust Violations in Upset Win (FindLaw's Legally Weird)
