FEDERAL BASEBALL CLUB V. NATIONAL LEAGUE: A CASE STUDY OF CHALLENGES TO BASEBALL GOVERNANCE AND THE EXEMPTIONS OF BASEBALL BUSINESS FROM THE U.S. FEDERAL ANTITRUST LAW

Abstract

While the U.S. antitrust law focuses on regulating market power to control anticompetitive behaviors and prevent societal detriment in the U.S. sports business market, there is some legal defenses or immunity that shield protect specific industries or activities of baseball from the U.S. federal antitrust law. Federal Baseball Club v. National League as a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court generally centers on expanding contexts of the exemptions of baseball business from the U.S. federal antitrust law. In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that industries or activities of baseball was not subject to the U.S. federal antitrust laws. This paper comes to give expression to the importance and role that the U.S. antitrust law now plays in today’s nature of sports business industry in the U.S. This paper also engages in that enquiry by considering the relationship between the relatively legal provisions in the primary federal antitrust law in the U.S. and the exemptions of baseball business from the U.S. federal antitrust law. The study of this case is a prominent tool in justifying the rulings and decisions which provide the exemption from the U.S. federal antitrust laws.