A jury in U.S. District Court ruled Thursday that the NFL violated antitrust laws by distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service, resulting in nearly $4.7 billion in damages being awarded.
The jury instructed the league to pay $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 had purchased the out-of-market games package from DirecTV for the 2011 through 2022 seasons. The lawsuit alleged that the league had violated antitrust laws by charging an inflated price for the Sunday games package and by limiting competition through offering “Sunday Ticket” exclusively on a satellite provider.
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The jury, consisting of five men and three women, deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching their decision.
The NFL is expected to appeal to the 9th Circuit Court and possibly to the Supreme Court.
Plaintiffs’ attorney, Bill Carmody, emphasized during the closing arguments that the case was about justice and holding the team owners accountable for violating antitrust laws and overcharging consumers.
The league argued that it had the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its broadcasting antitrust exemption, while the plaintiffs argued that the exemption only applied to over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
DirecTV had the rights to “Sunday Ticket” from 1994 until 2022, with a new deal signed with Google’s YouTube TV starting in 2023.
The lawsuit was initially filed in 2015 by a sports bar in San Francisco and was reinstated by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals two years later. The case was ruled to proceed as a class action last year.
