Former college basketball players defeated another attempt by Electronic Arts Inc. to evade a proposed antitrust class action on Wednesday, when a San Francisco federal judge refused to throw out claims that EA conspired to cheat the players out of payments for using their likenesses in video games and other media.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken denied a motion for judgment on the pleadings filed by EA and its lawyers at Keker & Van Nest and Latham & Watkins. In a nine-page opinion, she rejected EA’s arguments that the plaintiffs managed to escape dismissal last year only by misleading the court about the terms of licensing deals with one of the alleged co-conspirators.
