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US: Judge tosses antitrust suit against NFL

By  |  April 15, 2015

The National Football League and the Associated Press on Friday sacked a copyright and antitrust suit brought by seven photographers, when a New York federal judge ruled that exclusive deals cut between the league and photo agencies that allow the NFL to use photos royalty-free are not anticompetitive.

The lawsuit filed by seven current and former photographers alleged the NFL forced the AP and Getty Images, which license the photos to end users, to cut deals with the NFL to provide it with stock images royalty-free, preventing the photographers from getting paid when their work was exploited for commercial use.

“Plaintiffs have failed to allege a plausible product market limited to NFL-related photographs at this juncture,” Judge Sweet determined.

 

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