Jury orders NFL to pay $4.7 billion in Sunday Ticket antitrust lawsuit

By Katabella Roberts
Co-author

A federal judge in Los Angeles ordered the National Football League to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages for antitrust violations related to the Sunday Ticket program.

The verdict was handed down on Thursday in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, after less than a day of deliberations.

This came after a hearing in which NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones gave testimony.

About $4.7 billion in compensation was awarded to individual “Sunday Ticket” subscribers and $96 million to commercial subscribers such as restaurants and bars. Because damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could be ordered to pay $14.39 billion.

The ruling stems from a 2015 class-action lawsuit filed by San Francisco sports bar Mucky Duck that alleges the league “conspired” with distributor DirecTV to raise prices for its “Sunday Ticket” package, which allows viewers to watch out-of-market programming. games, but requires them to purchase access to a game package for this purpose.

The complaint targeted 2.4 million individual subscribers and 48,000 businesses who paid for the “Sunday Ticket” package from DirecTV or its subsidiaries at any time between 2011 and 2022.

The plaintiffs argued that the bundle effectively “has the effect of blocking or unavailable games that are not available in the marketplace” unless consumers purchase the “Sunday Ticket” bundle at inflated prices. They argued that the deal “causes significant harm to competition” and violates antitrust laws.

“This program restricts competition and harms Sunday ticket buyers. First, the complete elimination of competition allows the NFL, its teams, and DirecTV to charge supra-competitive monopoly prices, rather than the prices that would exist if 32 teams competed for interest and distribution in a free market. “Second, class members must pay for access to off-market games for all 32 teams, even if they only want to watch games of one or two teams,” the plaintiffs wrote in the lawsuit.

“No other major sports league in America employs such a drastic and complete elimination of competition in its broadcasts.”

NFL lawyers, seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, argued that Sunday Ticket was exempt from antitrust scrutiny under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which allowed it to sell television rights as a group, even though the NFL was made up of 32 team owners who collectively owned all the major television rights.

The NFL confirmed the decision on its official website, adding that it was “disappointed” with the jury’s 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 nationwide distribution of our most popular games, complemented by a variety of additional options including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment,” the league said in a statement.

The league said it planned to appeal the ruling.

If that happens, the appeal will go to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and then potentially to the Supreme Court.

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

The lawsuit against the NFL was initially dismissed in 2017 but was reinstated in 2019 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The judge overseeing the case, Philip S. Gutierrez, ruled last year that the case could proceed as a class action. He is scheduled to hear post-trial motions July 31.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.