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The U.S. Supreme Court will not review a lower court’s ruling that allowed bar and restaurant owners’ antitrust lawsuit against the NFL and DirecTV to move forward.
The plaintiffs had claimed the NFL and DirecTV had a monopoly over Sunday football game packages through NFL Sunday Ticket.
The lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2015, challenged the way in which NFL teams pool telecast rights to games and negotiate licensing for out-of-market games, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The circuit court threw out the case in 2017, but the appeals court overturned that decision last year, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s statement regarding the case, the NFL’s contract with DirecTV “has been in place for 26 years.”
The district court dismissed the plaintiff’s lawsuit, but an appeals court reversed that decision, maintaining the plaintiffs in the NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit had “sufficiently alleged that the contract may be illegal … .”
However, Justice Kavanaugh’s statement made it clear that while the high court declined to hear the case, it did not necessarily agree with the appeals court’s decision.
“I write separately simply to explain that the denial of certiorari should not necessarily be viewed as agreement with the legal analysis of the Court of Appeals,” he wrote.
Thirty-two NFL teams have authorized the NFL to sell out-of-market TV rights to DirecTV, Justice Kavanaugh wrote. According to the plaintiffs and the appeals court, antitrust law may require each team to negotiate individual contracts for its own games.
“But that conclusion appears to be in substantial tension with antitrust principles and precedents,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote. “The NFL and its member teams operate as a joint venture. … And antitrust law likely does not require that the NFL and its member teams compete against each other with respect to television rights.”
“Moreover,” he wrote, “the plaintiffs may not have antitrust standing to sue the NFL and the individual teams.”
The Supreme Court’s case law authorizes lawsuits by direct purchasers and bars them from indirect purchasers, Justice Kavanaugh’s statement said.
“The plaintiffs here did not purchase a product from the NFL or any team, and may therefore be barred from bringing suit against the NFL and its teams … .”
“If the defendants do not prevail at summary judgment or at trial, they may raise those legal arguments again in a new petition for certiorari, as appropriate,” the justice wrote.
While the NFL makes some games available through over-the-air broadcasts, U.S. consumers who want to access more games, including those outside their market, must buy the DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket package, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Without the deal between the NFL and DirecTV, consumers would have more options available to view NFL games at lower prices, the lawsuit alleged, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the NFL’s current TV deals are set to expire within the next few years, at which point it will likely make billions of dollars selling the games, which garner some of TV’s biggest ratings.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was sworn in last week to take the seat of longtime Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, did not take part in the NFL Sunday Ticket case, according to Justice Kavanaugh’s statement.
Are you a football fan? Do you think the NFL and DirecTV have monopoly with NFL Sunday Ticket? Let us know in the comments below.
The NFL Sunday Ticket Lawsuit is National Football League, et al. v. 9th Inning Inc., et al., Case No. 19–1098, in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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8 thoughts onNFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Lawsuit to Move Forward After Supreme Court Declines Review
DirecTV try to tell me that I did not return all my equipment wanted to bill my account late fees terminate my service and charged me other services charges on top of that on my bill
Add me
Add me please
Please add me
Can I be added to the Sunday Ticket suit please. Or, tell me how to add my name.
Please add me to this class action against NFL SUNDAY TICKET ANTITRUST case 19-1098. Thanks !
Yes add me I had direct TV at the time
add me in