A jury in U.S. District Court ruled Thursday that the NFL violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service and has been ordered to pay nearly $4.7 billion in damages.
The jury’s decision includes $4 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class.
The lawsuit involved 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses who purchased the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV. The lawsuit alleged that the league violated antitrust laws by selling the Sunday games package at an inflated price, while also limiting competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” exclusively on a satellite provider.
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The jury deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching their decision, which the NFL is expected to appeal to the 9th Circuit and potentially the Supreme Court.
Plaintiffs attorney Bill Carmody emphasized the importance of the case during closing arguments, stating, “This case transcends football. This case matters. It’s about justice… It’s about telling them that even you cannot ignore the antitrust laws.”
The league argued that it has the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting, while the plaintiffs argued that the exemption only applies to over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
DirecTV held the rights to “Sunday Ticket” from 1994 to 2022, with the league later signing a deal with Google’s YouTube TV for the 2023 season onward.
The lawsuit was initially filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco, dismissed in 2017, and reinstated by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019. Last year, Judge Gutierrez ruled that the case could proceed as a class action.
