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The National Football League (NFL) and DirecTV LLC have been hit with yet another class action lawsuit regarding their exclusive “NFL Sunday Ticket” cable package. An Illinois man has filed this proposed NFL class action lawsuit in California federal court alleging the Sunday Ticket packet offered exclusively through DirecTV package blocks competition from other cable providers and jacks up package prices for broadcasts of “out-of-market” games.
Plaintiff Mario Aliano filed this NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit on behalf of a Class of NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers and is the third known class action lawsuit of its kind, with at least two other cases claiming the current business agreement and practices between NFL and DirecTV violate federal antitrust laws.
According to the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit, Aliano claims, “This exclusive agreement between DirecTV and the NFL eliminates competition by preventing other media providers from distributing Sunday afternoon out-of-market NFL games. But for the agreement, other providers would be willing to compete for consumers of these games, which would reduce consumer costs and increase competition for viewership.”
Aliano’s NFL class action lawsuit alleges the 32 NFL teams pooled their television rights and gave the NFL the power to negotiate broadcast deals on behalf of each of these teams. As a result of the deals brokered by the NFL with DirecTV, football fans games are forced to buy the NFL Sunday Ticket package if they want to watch Sunday football games that involve teams outside of their “home market,” as NFL Sunday Ticket provided by DirecTV has the exclusive right to rebroadcast network feeds of NFL games to viewers located out-of-market.
As a result of the deal between DirecTV and the NFL, these two companies have allegedly created a monopoly on out-of-market NFL football game broadcasts. This allows DirecTV and NFL to charge higher prices for the Sunday Ticket package that what the cable company charges for similar sports broadcasting packages for NHL, MLB, and National Basketball Association games, as these sports leagues do not have exclusive deals for out-of-market broadcasting of games, Aliano alleges.
Aliano and the two other NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuits come on the heels of a June decision by a New York federal judge to grant preliminary approval of a NHL antitrust class action settlement, resolving antitrust claims by subscribers that they were being forced to pay exorbitant for out-of-market NHL games. The NHL settlement agreement states that NHL would offer unbundled, cheaper, and team-specific TV subscription packages for hockey fans.
The proposed Class is represented by Adam M. Tamburelli, Eliot F. Krieger and Charles T. Spagnola of Jarvis Krieger & Sullivan and Thomas A. Zimmerman, Jr. and Matthew C. De Re of Zimmerman Law Offices PC.
The NFL Sunday Ticket Class Action Lawsuit is Aliano v. National Football League Inc., et al., Case No. 2:15-cv-05508, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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5 thoughts onDirecTV and NFL Hit in Third Sunday Ticket Class Action
I also have DirecTV. I am in the middle of a dispute due to faulty instilation. They also opened my account fraudulently in August of 2014. I never received an answer as to how that occured! I had 4 items short circut and am in the process of getting reimbursed, but am quite angry that it took them from 2/14/15 until 7/15/15 to finaly get service back in my livingroom. I cannot beleive the lack of knowledge and unsafe practices their installers posess! My home was in danger due to the installer placing the main wire into my home on top of the main powerline, which at minimum should have been 3 feet away, and instead of grounding the wires outside, they were grounded by the fuse box in my cellar, but hooked up to my neighbors fuse box! We love football and have no choice but to keep this service to see all the games, but this goes way beyond a monopoly. I feel gross negligence that escalated to a level 3 issue, and in the state of CT the subcontractor could lose their licence to practice! If anyone can help, please do!
I’ve had direct tv for years and subcribe to the NFL yearly. When can I file a claim???
I have always been upset by the fact that Direct is the only TV channel with NFL. Direct is very disrespectful agency to their customers because of the monopoly on the NFL. They have been rude when called and can treat customers like crap. I called them to discontinue my service when I was gone for 5 months and they charged me anyway and made me pay it when they forgot to turn it off. I hope I am able to benefit and re coop these high fees from this monopoly. I never in a million years thought I would be paying over a $150.00 per month for TV. That is crazy !!! I have had service since 2001 for the NFL ticket and paid a lot of money over those years, which go up every year.Thank you. Karla Johnson
File claim
How do I get in on this class action lawsuit? I have had Direct TV NFL Sunday Ticket since 2002…and each year the price goes up. I pay it as my household is a die-hard football family and no one else (cable, regular tv channels) offer the Sunday Ticket package.