NFL released in $4.7 billion verdict in DirecTV Sunday Ticket antitrust case

DirecTV Sunday Ticket MDL Review:

• Who: A federal jury has awarded approximately $4.7 billion in damages to two groups of DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers.
• Why: The ruling resolves 27 class action lawsuits that claimed the NFL and DirecTV artificially inflated the costs of Sunday Ticket broadcast packages.
• Where: A jury returned the verdict in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

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A federal jury in California returned a significant verdict Thursday against the National Football League and its teams, awarding approximately $4.7 billion in damages to two classes of DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers.

The decision ends four-week trial period and nearly a decade of lawsuits in which 27 class-action plaintiffs alleged that the NFL and DirecTV unlawfully inflated the price of the Sunday Ticket package.

Since 2015, plaintiffs representing millions of Sunday Ticket subscribers in private homes and businesses accused the NFL and its teams of colluding with DirecTV to create an illegal monopoly by bundling all out-of-market matches so fans could not purchase a package featuring only one team.

The plaintiffs claimed that this artificially inflated the price of Sunday Tickets and forced viewers to pay for games in weeks when their favorite team was not playing.

During the trial, the plaintiffs presented evidence that the NFL rejected offers from other outlets that wanted Sunday Ticket to be cheaper and more flexible. This included an offer from ESPN+ to drop the price from hundreds of dollars to $70 and include a single-team package.

The judgment, which could be tripled under federal antitrust law, awarded more than $4.6 billion to the residential subscriber class and nearly $97 million to the commercial subscriber class, which includes bars and restaurants. Both classes are subscribers who paid for the DirecTV Sunday Ticket package from 2011 through 2022.

The NFL will appeal the decision, the statement said

The NFL said it intends to appeal the decision.

“We are disappointed with today’s jury verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement released to multiple media outlets. “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 a variety of additional options including RedZone, Sunday Tickets and NFL+, is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model across all of sports and entertainment.”

The judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez, still has the authority to overturn the jury’s verdict and rule in favor of the NFL.

Plaintiffs are represented by: Ian B. Crosby, Marc M. Seltzer, Kalpana Srinivasan, Amanda Bonn, William C. Carmody, Seth Ard, Tyler Finn and Ian M. Gore of Susman Godfrey LLP; Scott Martin, Sathya S. Gosselin, Christopher L. Lebsock, Samuel Maida and Farhad Mirzadeh of Hausfeld LLP; and Howard Langer, Edward Diver, Peter Leckman and Kevin Trainer of Langer Grogan & Diver PC.

This DirecTV MDL Sunday Ticket Is In re: Antitrust proceedings regarding Sunday tickets in the National Football LeagueCase No. 2:15-ml-02668, in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

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