EA settles Madden monopoly lawsuit

News by Stephany Nunneley-Jackson News Editor

Published on July 21, 2012

A class-action lawsuit claiming EA Sports' exclusive on the NFL football license constitutes an illegal monopoly has been finalized.

What this means, is that consumers who purchased a Madden product from EA between 2005 and today on PS3, Wii or Xbox 360, they can get $1.95 back as part of the suit. If it's a Madden game for GameCube, PS2, or Xbox, they can get $6.79.

The lawsuit also puts a five-year ban on an exclusive license between EA Sports and the NCAA once the current contract expires in 2014. The last NCAA football game released by a company other than EA was Sega's College Football 2K3 10 years ago. EA can sign any non-exclusive deal with the NCAA after 2014.

EA Sports also can't sign any exclusive licensing contracts with the Arena Football League for five years.

The lawsuit, Pecover vs. Electronic Arts, was filed in July 2008 and claimed the NFL license not only allowed EA to raise game prices by 70%, but killed off the NFL 2K series, and any other football game based on US football based around real teams - forcing consumers to only purchase EA Sports video game products.

EA is setting aside $27 million for the suit.

Thanks, Kotaku.