Dogfighting May Lead to Canadian Antitrust Violations
On Friday, Canadian Football League Commissioner Mark Cohon said that suspended National Football League quarterback Michael Vick would not be allowed to play in the CFL during his NFL suspension. (Vick was suspended "indefinitely" by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell after agreeing to plead guilty to federal "conspiracy" charges.) The CFL adopted this policy after another suspended NFL player, running back Ricky Williams, played in the CFL last year.
Marc Edelman, an attorney, writes at Sports Law Blog that the CFL's rule may violate U.S. antitrust laws. Edelman says, "the CFL has market power in the labor market for players banned by the NFL," and thus the CFL's ban amounts to an illegal group boycott under the Sherman Act.
Of course, the CFL is a wholly Canadian business, so how would U.S. antitrust laws even apply? Edelman responds:
[G]iven that most of the football players that would be banned from the CFL under this rule live in the United States, as well as that some of the CFL fans reside in the United States, and that CFL games are broadcast into the American market through Dish Network, DirecTV and America One, these concerns should not prevent a bona fide antitrust challenge against the Ricky Williams Rule in United States federal courts.Edelman is probably right. As I discussed in another case, the U.S. Justice Department considers its antitrust enforcement a universal enterprise, applying even to conduct that is legal within a person's or business's home country.
Defining a market of "players banned by the NFL" seems unusually silly, however, even by antitrust standards. (It's certainly more obscure than the market for premium organic and natural food supermarkets.) Unlike a class excluded because of age or credentials, suspended players are excluded because they violated the terms of their employment contract. It's reasonable for the CFL to preemptively boycott a group of players with a documented history of failing to follow certain rules of professional conduct.
