US judge rescinds $4.7 billion judgment against NFL in the ‘Sunday Ticket” lawsuit
August 1 (Reuters) The U.S. judge in California on Thursday upheld an $4.7 billion judgment in favor of the National Football League in a lawsuit alleging that it overcharged its subscribers to Sunday Ticket game broadcasts for over 10 years.
Mike Scarcella
02/08/2024
Item 1 of 2 The NFL logo is pictured at an event in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo
[1/2] The NFL logo is pictured at an event in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
The
New tab opens, rulingby the Los the Angeles-based U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez following the arguments from the NFL that the decision was not justified and resulted of the verdict of a “runaway” jury.
The NFL in a statement stated that it was happy with the ruling of a judge. “We believe that the NFL’s media distribution model provides our fans with an array of options to follow the game they love,” the NFL declared.
Lawyers representing subscribers have not yet responded to inquiries for clarification.
“Sunday Ticket” is the only option to broadcast for NFL fans looking to see their teams play games outside of market. The subscribers claim that “Sunday Ticket” prices were over-inflated to restrict subscriptions and safeguard distribution rights fees broadcast networks were required to pay to broadcast games in local markets.
Gutierrez with his lengthy ruling dismissed the testimony of two of the key witnesses for subscribers. He said that the verdict of the jury on damages was not supported by the evidence, and concluded that there the jury had made a mistake and there were enough flaws in the case to go forward.
“Plaintiffs failed to provide evidence from which a reasonable jury could make a finding of injury and an award of actual damages,” Gutierrez wrote.
The decision of the court granting the right to judgment on legal to the NFL is appealable to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Los Angeles federal jury stated in its verdict of June 27 that NFL has slowed the distribution for “Sunday Ticket,” allowing DirecTV to charge artificially high prices since it was the prior sole distributor. DirecTV was not in trial.
The jury voted $4.6 billion according to 24.1 million subscriptions for residential customers during the 12-year class period and $96.9 million on the basis of around 506,780 commercial memberships for restaurants and bars.
The NFL in a court document declared the amount of damages “nonsensical” based on the evidence that the jury was permitted to review and denied the claim that subscribers were being overcharged.
The participants claimed that they believed that the NFL relied upon “pure conjecture” into the jury’s reasoning. They also claimed that they had no proof to suggest that jurors relied on evidence that they were told not to consider.
U.S. antitrust law allows for the triple of damages which could have raised the value of the judgment to $14 billion.
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Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario and Daniel Wallis
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