A jury in U.S. District Court ordered the NFL to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages Thursday after ruling that the league violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.
The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class.
The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses who paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV. The lawsuit claimed the league broke antitrust laws by selling its package of Sunday games at an inflated price. The subscribers also say the league restricted competition by offering 鈥淪unday Ticket鈥� only on a satellite provider.
The NFL said it would appeal the verdict. That appeal would go to the 9th Circuit and then possibly the Supreme Court.
鈥淲e are disappointed with the jury鈥檚 verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,鈥� the league said in a statement. 鈥淲e continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.
鈥淲e will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.鈥�
The jury of five men and three women deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching its decision.
鈥淭his case transcends football. This case matters,鈥� plaintiffs attorney Bill Carmody said during Wednesday鈥檚 closing arguments. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about justice. It鈥檚 about telling the 32 team owners who collectively own all the big TV rights, the most popular content in the history of TV 鈥� that鈥檚 what they have. It鈥檚 about telling them that even you cannot ignore the antitrust laws. Even you cannot collude to overcharge consumers. Even you can鈥檛 hide the truth and think you鈥檙e going to get away with it.鈥�
The league maintained it has the right to sell 鈥淪unday Ticket鈥� under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs say that only covers over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
DirecTV had 鈥淪unday Ticket鈥� from its inception in 1994 through 2022. The league signed a seven-year deal with Google鈥檚 YouTube TV that began with the 2023 season.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco 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 the case could proceed as a class action.
