A federal judge has overturned the verdict a jury awarded $4.7 billion in the class action lawsuit brought by “Sunday Ticket” subscribers against the NFL and the NFL has been awarded a judgment.
U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez ruled Thursday that the testimony of two witnesses on behalf of the subscribers was methodologically flawed and should have been excluded.
“Without the testimony of Dr. (Daniel) Rascher and Dr. (John) Zona, no reasonable jury could have found a class-wide injury or damage,” Gutierrez wrote at the end of his 16-page ruling.
The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to residential and business subscribers on June 27 after finding that the NFL violated antitrust laws by distributing Sunday afternoon games outside its home market through a premium subscription service.
The lawsuit involved 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the package on DirecTV that included out-of-region games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons.
“We are grateful for today’s ruling in the Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the NFL said in a statement to CBS News. “We believe the NFL’s media distribution model provides our fans with a variety of options to follow the games they love, including local coverage of every game on free television. We thank Judge Gutierrez for his time and attention to this matter and look forward to an exciting NFL season in 2024.”
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The jury, consisting of five men and three women, found the NFL liable for $4,610,331,671.74 in damages to the residential class, home-use subscribers, and $96,928,272.90 in damages to the commercial class, business-use subscribers.
Because damages can be tripled under federal antitrust law, the NFL could have been liable for $14,121,779,833.92.
This is not the first time the NFL has won a ruling in this case, which has been ongoing since 2015.
In 2017, U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell dismissed the lawsuit and ruled in favor of the NFL, finding that Sunday Ticket did not diminish the production of NFL games and that DirecTV, while possibly charging excessive prices, “did not, per se, cause competitive harm” because it had to negotiate with the NFL to offer the package.
Two years later, the case was heard again by the 9th Court of Appeals.
It is likely that the plaintiffs will appeal again to the 9th Circuit.
