15 U.S.C. § 1291
Section 1291 · Exemption from antitrust laws of agreements covering the telecasting of sports contests and the combining of professional football leagues
This is the Sherman Antitrust Act
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 37 court decisions — leading case Flood v. Kuhn (1972)
Most recently applied in Ninth Inning, Inc. v. Directv, LLC (August 2019)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The antitrust laws, as defined in section 1 of the Act of October 15, 1914, as amended (38 Stat. 730) [15 U.S.C. 12], or in the Federal Trade Commission Act, as amended (38 Stat. 717) [15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.], shall not apply to any joint agreement by or among persons engaging in or conducting the organized professional team sports of football, baseball, basketball, or hockey, by which any league of clubs participating in professional football, baseball, basketball, or hockey contests sells or otherwise transfers all or any part of the rights of such league's member clubs in the sponsored telecasting of the games of football, baseball, basketball, or hockey, as the case may be, engaged in or conducted by such clubs. In addition, such laws shall not apply to a joint agreement by which the member clubs of two or more professional football leagues, which are exempt from income tax under section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 [26 U.S.C. 501(c)(6)], combine their operations in expanded single league so exempt from income tax, if such agreement increases rather than decreases the number of professional football clubs so operating, and the provisions of which are directly relevant thereto.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
The Federal Trade Commission Act, referred to in text, is act Sept. 26, 1914, ch. 311, 38 Stat. 717, as amended, which is classified generally to subchapter I (§41 et seq.) of chapter 2 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see section 58 of this title and Tables.
Amendments
1986—Pub. L. 99–514 substituted “Internal Revenue Code of 1986” for “Internal Revenue Code of 1954”.
1966—Pub. L. 89–800 extended exemption from antitrust laws to include a joint agreement by which the member clubs of two or more professional football leagues combine their operations in an expanded single league.
Savings Provision
Section 6 of Pub. L. 87–331 provided that: “Nothing in this Act [this chapter] shall affect any cause of action existing on the effective date hereof [Sept. 30, 1961] in respect to the organized professional team sports of baseball, football, basketball, or hockey.”
Cross References
Federal Trade Commission Act, definition of antitrust acts, see section 44 of this title.
Intercollegiate and interscholastic football contest, applicability to agreements limiting, see section 1293 of this title.
Joint agreements prohibiting area telecasting, applicability to, see section 1292 of this title.
Professional sports contests, applicability to agreements concerning other activities, see section 1294 of this title.