NFL sacked with $4.7 billion verdict in DirecTV Sunday Ticket antitrust case

DirecTV Sunday Ticket MDL overview:

• Who: A federal jury awarded about $4.7 billion in damages to two classes of DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers. 
• Why: The verdict resolves 27 class action lawsuits claiming the NFL and DirecTV artificially inflated Sunday Ticket broadcast package costs.
• Where: The jury decided the verdict in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

A federal jury in California delivered a significant verdict Thursday against the National Football League and its teams, awarding roughly $4.7 billion in damages to two classes of DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers. 

The decision concludes a four-week trial and nearly a decade of litigation in which plaintiffs from 27 class action lawsuits claimed the NFL and DirecTV unlawfully inflated the price of the Sunday Ticket broadcast package.

Beginning in 2015, plaintiffs representing millions of residential and commercial Sunday Ticket subscribers accused the NFL and its teams of conspiring with DirecTV to create an illegal monopoly by bundling all out-of-market games so fans could not buy a one-team package. 

Plaintiffs argued this setup artificially inflated the price of Sunday Ticket and forced viewers to pay for games during weeks when their preferred team wasn’t playing. 

During the trial, plaintiffs presented evidence that the NFL declined bids from other outlets that wanted to make Sunday Ticket cheaper and more flexible. This included a bid from ESPN+ to lower the price from hundreds of dollars to $70 and include a single-team package.

The verdict, which could be tripled under federal antitrust law, awarded more than $4.6 billion to a class of residential subscribers and nearly $97 million to a class of commercial subscribers comprised of bars and restaurants. Both classes are subscribers who paid for the DirecTV Sunday Ticket package from 2011 through 2022.

NFL to appeal decision, it says in statement

The NFL says it would appeal the decision. 

“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league says in a statement given to multiple media outlets. “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.”

The judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez, still has the power to overturn the jury verdict and rule in favor of the NFL.

The plaintiffs are represented by Ian B. Crosby, Marc M. Seltzer, Kalpana Srinivasan, Amanda Bonn, William C. Carmody, Seth Ard, Tyler Finn and Ian M. Gore of Susman Godfrey LLP; Scott Martin, Sathya S. Gosselin, Christopher L. Lebsock, Samuel Maida and Farhad Mirzadeh of Hausfeld LLP; and Howard Langer, Edward Diver, Peter Leckman and Kevin Trainer of Langer Grogan & Diver PC.

The DirecTV Sunday Ticket MDL 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 Central District of California.

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