A federal judge overturned the jury verdict in the NFLs Sunday Ticket lawsuit on Thursday afternoon in what was a huge win for the league ahead of the 2024 season.
A jury in Los Angeles ruled last month that the league had violated federal antitrust laws by selling its Sunday Ticket package only on DirectTV at an inflated price, which set the league up to be potentially liable for more than $14 billion in damages.
BREAKING: A federal district judge has overturned the jury verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket case
Daniel Kaplan (@KaplanSportsBiz) August 1, 2024
The verdict had been in doubt in recent days after U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez, who oversaw the case, said Wednesday that the jury did not follow his instructions in determining damages, according to The Associated Press. The jury found the NFL liable for more than $4.6 billion in damages to the residential class and nearly $97 million in damages to the commercial class, though Gutierrez said they used their own calculations while coming up with those totals. Under federal antitrust laws, damages can be tripled which could have resulted in the NFL being liable for more than $14 billion.
A class-action lawsuit was brought against the NFL earlier this year alleging that it violated antitrust laws restricting competition in an effort to protect its deals with Fox and CBS for Sunday afternoon games each season. DirectTV had Sunday Ticket exclusively from 1994-2022, and then YouTube TV took over before the 2023 season. The package typically costs $349 per season.
The lawsuit argued that the NFL kept the cost of Sunday Ticket artificially high in order to profit off of fans who wanted to watch their favorite team play in out-of-market games and bars who wanted to attract customers on game days. This, the lawsuit argued, priced otu most fans and forced them to only watch the local game instead.
The NFL argued throughout the lawsuit that Sunday Ticket was simply a premium service, and that it came at a premium price.
The case is about choice, NFL attorney Beth Wilkinson said to the jury during the case. This is a valuable, premium product. Think about all the choices available to fans? We want as many people as possible to watch the free broadcasts.
This post will be updated with more information shortly.