January 13, 2015 (Oakland, CA) – Pritzker Levine LLP represents a proposed class of current and former NCAA Division I women basketball players in antitrust litigation against the NCAA and its member conferences.
The complaint was filed today in federal court in Oakland, California by Justine Hartman, a current member of the University of California – Berkeley women’s basketball team, and by Afure Jemerigbe, a former member of the University of California – Berkeley women’s basketball team. The class action case seeks to represent current and former NCAA Division I women basketball players who played from March 2010 to the present.
The complaint alleges that the NCAA and its member conferences, including the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big-12 SEC and ACC, have systematically colluded to disrupt the free market and deprive NCAA Division I women basketball players of the full economic benefits of their labor. According to the complaint, NCAA rules artificially depress the value of athletic scholarships – known as Grants-in-Aid or GIAs – to typically several thousand dollars less per year, per player, than the actual cost to attend an NCAA Division I school.
The complaint alleges that in a market unrestricted by NCAA and member restrictions on GIAs, schools would compete for star athletes like Hartman and Jemerigbe and pay at least the full cost of attendance. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to prohibit any agreement on capping GIA’s below the cost of attendance and past damages for players who had to pay the difference between their scholarship and the cost of attendance as a result of the illegal agreement.
Current or former NCAA Division I women basketball players seeking more information about the case can contact Elizabeth C. Pritzker of Pritzker Levine at ecp@pritzkerlevine.com or by phone at (415) 692-0772.
About Pritzker Levine
Pritzker Levine LLP is national litigation firm with offices in California and New York. The firm serves corporate clients, public entities, pension funds, small businesses, nonprofit groups, labor unions, whistleblowers and injured persons in cases involving antitrust violations, securities fraud and derivative claims, commercial disputes, consumer protection, financial wrongdoing, employment law and personal injuries.