Baseball Players Union Supports End to MLB Antitrust Exemption

The Major League Baseball Players Association is backing an effort to eliminate Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption in an amicus brief filed with the US Supreme Court.

The MLBPA, which represents professional baseball players signed to a collective bargaining contract with MLB and its 30 clubs, said the Supreme Court should grant a petition filed by a group of baseball teams that were booted out of the minor leagues by the MLB. The teams include Tri-City ValleyCats in upstate New York.

MLBPA said the Supreme Court should overrule its prior decisions and eliminate the baseball exemption.

MLB is famously exempt from antitrust laws due to a 1922 Supreme Court decision that concluded baseball exhibitions don’t implicate the 1890 Sherman Act.

“From its inception, MLBPA has worked to eliminate or limit the scope of Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption and supported the efforts of others aggrieved by the exemption,” the union said in the amicus brief filed Tuesday. “MLBPA’s consistent position has been that Major League Baseball should not have an exemption and that the exemption harms players, fans, cities, states, and other businesses.”

The case is Tri-City ValleyCats Inc. v. Office of the Comm’r of Baseball, U.S., No. 23-283, 10/17/23