Playfly Sports Wins Dismissal of High School Athlete NIL Antitrust Lawsuit

Paul, Weiss achieved a significant victory on behalf of Playfly, LLC, when the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed in full a six-count antitrust class action against Playfly and eight other co-defendants alleging a conspiracy to restrict compensation for high school student athletes in California.

The plaintiff—a former California high school football player and track-and-field athlete—filed this lawsuit in May 2025 on behalf of a putative class of California high school student athletes. He claimed that the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) and its 10 regional sections, as well as a group of sports media and technology companies that included our client (known as the media defendants), violated federal and state antitrust law by conspiring to limit compensation to students for their athletic performance and for the use of their names, images and likenesses (NIL). Specifically, the plaintiff alleged that CIF’s amateurism rules for high school athletes restrained competition for athlete compensation, and that the media defendants “acquiesced” in this arrangement by broadcasting, streaming or otherwise monetizing high school sports content in partnership with the CIF for profit, without facing competitive pressure to pay student athletes.

In her order dismissing the complaint, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler concluded that there was “no plausible claim” against Playfly or the other media defendants because the plaintiff failed to plead their involvement in promulgating or enforcing the challenged rules. The court also agreed with our argument that the plaintiff had not pled Article III or antitrust standing against the media defendants, and had not pled a plausible nationwide market for California high school athlete NIL.

The Paul, Weiss team includes litigation partners Jay Cohen, Paul Brachman and Randy Luskey.