A federal judge has made a significant ruling in the class-action lawsuit brought by 'Sunday Ticket' subscribers against the NFL, overturning the jury's $4.7 billion verdict and granting judgment to the NFL. U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez determined that the testimonies of two key witnesses for the subscribers were flawed and should have been excluded from the case.
The lawsuit, which involved 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the out-of-market games package on DirecTV from 2011 through 2022, alleged that the NFL violated antitrust laws in distributing Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.
The jury's initial decision on June 27 awarded $4.7 billion in damages, with $4,610,331,671.74 designated for residential subscribers and $96,928,272.90 for commercial subscribers. Due to the possibility of tripling damages under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could have faced a total liability of $14,121,779,833.92.
This case has seen previous legal actions, with a similar judgment in favor of the NFL in 2017 by U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell. The lawsuit was dismissed at that time, as it was argued that 'Sunday Ticket' did not reduce the output of NFL games and that any potential inflated prices charged by DirecTV did not constitute harm to competition.
However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the case two years later, leading to the recent ruling by Judge Gutierrez. It is anticipated that the plaintiffs may appeal this decision to the 9th Circuit once again.
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