Jury finds NFL violated antitrust laws in ‘Sunday Ticket’ case, awards $4.7 billion in damages originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury in U.S. District Court ruled Thursday that the NFL violated antitrust laws by distributing excessive Sunday afternoon games through a premium subscription service and awarded nearly $4.7 billion in damages.
The jury ordered the league to pay $4 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class.
The lawsuit involved 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses who paid for the package of out-of-market matches from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV. The lawsuit alleged that the league violated antitrust laws by selling its package of Sunday games at an inflated price. The subscribers also say the league limited competition by only offering “Sunday Ticket” through a satellite provider.
The jury, consisting of five men and three women, deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching a decision.
“This case transcends football. This case is important,” said Bill Carmody, an attorney for the plaintiffs, during Wednesday’s closing arguments. “It’s about fairness. It’s about telling the 32 team owners who collectively own all the major TV rights, the most popular content in the history of TV, that that’s what they have. It’s about telling them that even you violate antitrust laws can’t ignore. Even you can’t conspire to overcharge consumers. Even you can’t hide the truth and think you can get away with it.”
The NFL was expected to appeal to the 9th Circuit and then possibly to the Supreme Court.
The league insisted it has the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its broadcast antitrust exemption. The plaintiffs say this only applies to terrestrial broadcasts and not to paid TV.
“We are disappointed with today’s jury verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement. “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy of airing all NFL games on free over-the-air television in our participating teams’ markets and national distribution of our most popular games, complemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in sports and entertainment.”
“We will certainly appeal this decision as we believe the class action claims in this case are unfounded and without any merit.”
DirecTV had “Sunday Ticket” from its founding in 1994 through 2022. The league signed a seven-year deal with Google’s YouTube TV that began with the 2023 season.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by San Francisco sports bar Mucky Duck but was dismissed in 2017. Two years later, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over California and eight other states, reinstated the case. Gutierrez ruled last year that the case could proceed as a class action.
