NFL to pay $1 billion for antitrust violations

The National Football League was ordered to pay nearly $5 billion on Thursday after a jury found it violated antitrust laws by distributing Sunday afternoon football games through a subscription platform.

According to ESPN, a U.S. District Court jury ordered the league to pay $4.7 billion to those who acquired the platform from a private class and an additional $96 million to those from a commercial class.

However, federal antitrust laws state that penalties can be tripled in some cases, meaning the NFL could pay more than $14 billion.

The lawsuit was first filed in 2015 and concerned the league’s handling of games that are neither played in a local market nor broadcast on national television, CNN reported.

Plaintiffs in that case argued that the NFL forced some fans who wanted to watch those games to pay higher fees for the “Sunday Ticket” package because the games were not available on other platforms.

Bill Carmody, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said before the decision that this case “goes beyond football,” noting that it is simply about providing justice for those who have been exploited by the league.

“This is about telling the 32 team owners who collectively own all the major television rights that the most popular content in the history of television — that’s what they own. This is about telling them that even you can’t ignore antitrust laws. Even you can’t collude to overcharge consumers. Even you can’t hide the truth and think you can get away with it,” he told the Associated Press.

The NFL, in response to the verdict, said it was “disappointed” with the jury’s decision and noted that it currently plans to appeal the verdict.

“We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which includes all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in participating team markets and national distribution of our most popular games, complemented by many additional options including RedZone, Sunday Tickets and NFL+ is by far the most fan-friendly model distribution across all sports and entertainment,” the league continued in a statement, according to ESPN.

“We will certainly challenge this decision as we believe the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service, and for the guidance and supervision of Judge (Philip) Gutierrez throughout the trial.”

Although the NFL has not yet officially filed an appeal, the current ruling may cause various complications in the functioning of the payout process.

The lawsuit covers 12 years of NFL “Sunday Ticket” eligibility, with those who purchased the package between June 17, 2011 and February 7, 2023, automatically included, according to NBC Sports.

Terms of the lawsuit stipulate that the plaintiffs’ attorney will receive approximately 40% of the total fine amount, which after tripling the initial orders would amount to $5.52 billion for NBC Sports.

From there, the NFL will be forced to pay approximately $8.28 billion to approximately 2.4 million members of the housing class, which is approximately $3,450 per person. The total number of commercial customers is unknown at this time. It’s still unclear whether these payments will realistically be sent to each person expected to be included in the lawsuit.