Baseball Fans and Communities Protection Act of 1994

Baseball Fans and Communities Protection Act of 1994 - Amends the Clayton Act to apply the antitrust laws to any unilateral terms and conditions of employment in restraint of trade or commerce imposed by any party to an agreement between two or more major league baseball clubs and the labor organization representing the baseball players.

States that the antitrust laws shall not apply to a term or condition imposed solely with respect to a player party to a uniform player contract that is assigned, at the time such imposition occurs, to a non-major league professional baseball club.

[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[H.R. 4994 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4994

   To apply the antitrust laws of the United States to major league 
                               baseball.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            August 18, 1994

  Mr. Synar (for himself, Mr. Bunning, Mr. Owens, and Mr. Bilirakis) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To apply the antitrust laws of the United States to major league 
                               baseball.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Baseball Fans and Communities 
Protection Act of 1994''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

    It is the purpose of the amendment made by section 3 to encourage 
serious negotiations between the major league baseball players and the 
owners of major league baseball, to prevent the continued economic loss 
to individuals not involved in the negotiations whose livelihood 
depends on baseball being played, to prevent ongoing losses to those 
communities that host major league baseball, and to preserve the 
remainder of the season, the playoffs, and the World Series for the 
fans of baseball.

SEC. 3. APPLICATION OF THE ANTITRUST LAWS TO MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL IN 
              EXCEPTIONAL AND EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES.

    The Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12 et seq.) is amended by adding at the 
end the following new section:
    ``Sec. 27. (a) In the event that unilateral terms or conditions are 
imposed by any party that has been subject to an agreement between the 
owners of major league baseball and the labor organization representing 
the players of major league baseball, the antitrust laws shall apply to 
such terms and conditions and such terms and conditions may be 
challenged by any party to such agreement in any district court of the 
United States for the district in which one of the parties is doing 
business.
    ``(b) If, prior to the mutual adoption of an agreement between the 
owners of major league baseball and the labor organization representing 
the players of major league baseball that replaces the basic agreement 
between the parties that expired on December 31, 1993, unilateral terms 
and conditions are imposed by any party to the prior agreement, and 
those terms and conditions are challenged in a court action in 
accordance with subsection (a), the application of such unilaterally 
imposed terms and conditions shall be stayed during the pendency of any 
such action or appeal therefrom.
    ``(c) The term `terms and conditions' shall not include either a 
strike or a lockout.''.
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