A federal judge in Los Angeles has overturned a $4.7 billion verdict from a jury in a class-action lawsuit brought by “Sunday Ticket” subscribers against the NFL, ruling in favor of the NFL. U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez stated on Thursday that the methodologies of two key witnesses for the subscribers were flawed and should not have been considered.
The jury’s decision on June 27 awarded $4.7 billion in damages to both residential and commercial subscribers, finding that the NFL had violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games through a premium subscription service.
The lawsuit encompassed 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the U.S. that had paid for DirecTV’s out-of-market games from 2011 to 2022.
The jury held the NFL accountable for $4,610,331,671.74 in damages to residential subscribers and $96,928,272.90 to business subscribers.
Given that damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the league could have faced a liability of $14,121,779,833.92.
This is not the first time the NFL has secured a judgment in its favor in this prolonged case, which dates back to 2015. Earlier in 2017, U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell had dismissed the lawsuit, stating that the “Sunday Ticket” service did not reduce the output of NFL games.
Despite this initial ruling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the case two years later, and it is likely that the plaintiffs will once again appeal to the 9th Circuit.
