Ivy League Athletic Scholarship Litigation

Berger Montague filed a lawsuit on March 7, 2023 on behalf of current and former Ivy league athletes.The case, Choh et al v. Brown University et al, alleges the ban on athletic scholarships and compensation violate federal antitrust law. The suit was filed by lead plaintiffs Tamenang Choh and Grace Kirk, Brown University basketball players, on behalf of all other Ivy League athletes who have competed since March 2019. There are approximately 10,000 proposed class members.

The defendants are the following universities: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. The Council of Ivy Presidents, the inter-collegiate governing body that oversees the eight universities, is also named as a defendant.

The lawsuit alleges that the Ivy League violates federal antitrust law through its “Ivy League Agreement”, an agreement between the member universities to refuse athletic scholarships and compensation to student athletes. Specifically, the suit alleges, the agreement constitutes unlawful price fixing and violates the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 since without scholarships, athletes are forced to pay more in tuition than they would otherwise.      

Plaintiffs seek an injunction that allows Ivy League schools to award athletic scholarships going forward, and tripled monetary damages for the athletes who were financially harmed by the prohibition of scholarships and student athlete compensation.

On October 9, 2024, a Connecticut federal judge dismissed the case. However, Berger Montague and its co-counsel appealed on October 21, 2024. To learn more about the litigation, visit IvyCartel.com.

About Berger Montague

Berger Montague is one of the nation’s preeminent law firms focusing on complex civil litigation, class actions and mass torts in federal and state courts throughout the United States. The firm is active in the fields of antitrust, commercial litigation, consumer protection, defective products, environmental law, employment law, securities and whistleblower cases, among other practice areas. For more than 50 years Berger Montague has played leading roles in precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $60 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago, Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto, Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, DE.