To provide that professional baseball teams and leagues composed of such teams shall be subject to the antitrust laws.

January 4, 1995

Mr. TRAFICANT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

To provide that professional baseball teams and leagues composed of such teams shall be subject to the antitrust laws.

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 `Professional Baseball Antitrust Reform Act of 1995'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds that--

(1) the business of organized professional baseball is in, or affects, interstate commerce, and

(2) the antitrust laws should be amended to reverse the result of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, 259 U.S. 200 (1922), Toolson v. New York Yankees, Inc., 346 U.S. 356 (1953), and Flood v. Kuhn, 407 U.S. 258 (1972), which exempted baseball from coverage under the antitrust laws.

SEC. 3. APPLICATION OF ANTITRUST LAWS TO PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL .

The Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following section:

`SEC. 27. Except as provided in Public Law 87-331 (15 U.S.C. 291 et seq.) (commonly known as the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961), the antitrust laws shall apply to the business of organized professional baseball .'.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICATION OF AMENDMENTS.

This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall--

(1) take effect 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act,

(2) apply to conduct that occurs and any agreement in effect after such effective date, and

(3) not apply to conduct that occurred before such effective date.