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Update:
- DirecTV customers who filed a lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) asked a judge to reject the league’s request for summary judgment, stating the league did not use new or valid arguments but instead reused already-rejected arguments.
- The plaintiffs pointed U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez to the NFL’s previously rejected arguments and instead said the league has the burden to prove why its NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market TV package is “supracompetitive.”
- The plaintiffs argued teams are individual entities and not part of one larger organization that cannot compete against itself and that the NFL, its teams and broadcast partners violate the Sherman Antitrust Act with their out-of-market TV rights deal.
NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit overview:
- Who: The National Football League (NFL) opposes class certification for a group of restaurants, bars and fans challenging its exclusivity agreement with DirecTV for its NFL Sunday Ticket subscription package.
- Why: The NFL argues the proposed class is trying to accomplish more than just filing an antitrust complaint.
- Where: The lawsuit was filed in California federal court.
(Nov. 9, 2022)
The National Football League (NFL) opposes class certification for a group of restaurants, bars and fans challenging its “NFL Sunday Ticket” subscription package exclusivity agreement with DirecTV.
The NFL argues that the proposed class of restaurants, bars and fans has its sights set on more than just an antitrust complaint — that the league argues is filled with holes to begin with.
“They seek to upend the NFL’s entire media model, which allows every person in America to receive up to five football games for free every Sunday, through contracts Congress has exempted from antitrust scrutiny,” the league says in a motion opposing class certification.
The NFL argues the legal theory presented by the residential and commercial subscribers “cannot be coherently evaluated on a classwide basis” because they would have to prove “that the agreements they are challenging cause classwide antitrust injury in a relevant market.”
Further, the NFL claims the proposed class failed to identify a precedent where “some (but not all) of their gerrymandered class would be benefited by making everyone else in the market pay more.”
NFL argues proposed class identifies ‘no precedent’ suggesting valid antitrust theory
“Plaintiffs identify no precedent, and Defendants are aware of none, suggesting that this kind of forced wealth transfer is a valid theory of antitrust class certification,” the NFL says.
The NFL also argues that the classes cannot be certified “because fairly resolving their claims requires individualized determinations of injury and damages” that defeat “predominance and superiority requirements.”
“As explained in Defendants’ accompanying motions to exclude Plaintiffs’ experts, there is no valid model in this case and thus no basis for certifying the class,” the NFL says.
The NFL and DirecTV have fought antitrust claims for nearly a decade, with more than 20 complaints in total accusing them of working together to allow the satellite provider to charge more, Law360 reports.
In related NFL news, a group of NFL website subscribers filed a separate class action lawsuit against the NFL in October 2022, arguing the league gave their data to Facebook without consent.
Are you a DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket subscriber? Let us know in the comments.
The NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit is In re: National Football League’s Sunday Ticket Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 2:15-ml-02668, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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36 thoughts onDirectTV subscribers challenge NFL’s request for partial summary judgment
Please add me i paid in on this Sunday nfl ticket