That news doesn’t much change the merits of the case one way or the other, but it does give some added heft to the Bernstein, Litowitz firm’s march toward lead class counsel status.Â
In addition, it is simply interesting to me that the lead plaintiff in the case is the FA, and that the economics of European football and the economics of American competition and intellectual property law have finally collided. Followers of this blog will recall that I have a special interest in relating football to law, and vice versa. The FA’s special concern for its competitive privileges in this case are consistent, in a sense, with recent discussions of EU-wide antitrust exemptions for sport. But sporting authorities may have a difficult time prevailing on that question, and if Google, YouTube, and their consumer customers prevail in this case, they may find themselves establishing a kind of Bosman ruling for the Internet.Â