The NFL will have to pay over $4 billion in regards to a antitrust lawsuit regarding the Sunday Ticket service.
LOS ANGELES, CA– The NFL has just suffered a $4.7 billion defeat at the hands of a US District Court jury who found the league guilty of violating antitrust laws. The NFL had been accused and found guilty of violating competition laws regarding its premium subscription service to access out-of-market games via the NFL Sunday Ticket program.
The jury awarded the aforementioned $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million to the commercial class. Federal laws state that antitrust damages can be tripled, potentially leaving the NFL on the hook for over $14.39 billion.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. 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 league said in a statement.
The lawsuit claimed that the league sold the service package at an inflated price and restricted other competition by forcing users to purchase the package via a satellite provider. DirecTV provided the service and charged upwards of $300 for a single season.
The league plans to appeal the decision, post trial motions will be heard in a little over a month– where there will be a motion to set aside the verdict. If everything goes south, the NFL will appeal to the Ninth Circuit, the west coast’s district court. The fallout of this decision could spill over into other factors of the game as well, namely with the current verdict set to cost each team $449.6 million.
The league maintained it had the right to sell Sunday Ticket under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs said that only covers over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
