EA offers bigger payouts in extended $27m football monopoly settlement

Claimants are now eligible for almost three times as much per any EA football title purchased between 2005 and 2012.

 

New terms in the long-running Pecover vs. Electronic Arts lawsuit have extended the time those affected will be allowed to make a claim for monetary reimbursement, as well as offering claimants almost three times the amount.

The original cut-off date for the football-related lawsuit was March 5, but more time is being made available because a lower-than-anticipated number of claims have been made.

Customers who have purchased any Madden, NCAA Football, or Arena Football game between 2005 and 2012 will be eligible for reimbursement in the settlement.

Owners of last-gen football titles will receive $20.37 per game, while current-gen titles will pay out $5.85 a piece. These figures are up from the previously offered $6.79 and $1.95, respectively.

If total claims exceed $27m then the payout figure will be adjusted. Any leftover money from the settlement, which previously would have been donated to gaming charity Child's Play, will now go to the US federal government.

In July 2012, EA agreed a settlement of $27 million for the long-running class-action lawsuit, which alleged the company's licensing agreements "monopolized an alleged market for interactive football software."

The class action lawsuit had been running for four years, and the settlement covered EA's licenses for the NCAA Football and Arena Football series of games.

Licenses pertaining to EA's long-running Madden franchise are not affected.

As part of the proposed settlement, there will be a five-year ban on exclusive licenses between EA and both the NCAA and Arena Football after the current contracts expire in 2014.

"We made a business decision to settle this lawsuit and put the matter behind us. We look forward to continuing our partnerships with the NFL and NCAA," said an EA representative to GameSpot at the time.

EA's last Arena Football title--Arena Football: Road to Glory--was published in 2007, and the last non-EA NCAA title was made by Sega in 2002.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot


"EA offers bigger payouts in extended $27m football monopoly settlement" was posted by Martin Gaston on Tue, 16 Apr 2013 03:48:04 -0700
Filed under: Video Games

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