Court Denies Class Certification in Atheletes’ Suit Against Madden NFL Maker

By Jennifer E. Rothman
September 6, 2018

Yesterday, the district court in Davis v. Electronic Arts confirmed its holding that there could not be class certification in the right of publicity case arising from the alleged use of NFL players' identities in the popular sports-themed video game series NFL Madden.  The court rejected the motion to reconsider class certification, concluding that because the use of each players' identity needs to be separately considered it was not possible to certify a class.

This does not mean that the case is dead. The court recently held that the common law claims could proceed against EA as to individual plaintiffs.