The NFL landed a significant, albeit likely temporary, legal victory as a federal judge overturned a $4.7 billion verdict against the league.
On Thursday, US District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez tossed a jury’s judgment over the NFL’s Sunday games distribution. Gutierrez wrote that the evidence did not support the $4.7 billion in damages awarded in June.
In 2015, subscribers of the league’s “Sunday Ticket” package sued the league for violating antitrust laws by colluding with DirecTV, a television service provider, to charge higher prices. The jury initially awarded $4.7 billion in damages, which could have been tripled to $14 billion under federal antitrust laws.
Gutierrez criticized the jury’s method for calculating the damages, which compared the list price of the “Sunday Ticket” in 2018 and 2019 to the average price paid by subscribers over several years.
The judge found this approach flawed because it only reflects the difference in the amount paid from the listed price rather than estimating the damages from the NFL’s supposed monopolistic behavior.
The judge wrote that two key witnesses’ testimony should be excluded. Daniel Rascher and John Zona’s testimonies were supposed to show that subscribers would have paid less if the NFL hadn’t made a deal with DirecTV, the judge wrote. However, he deemed their models unreliable and “not products of sound methodologies,” ultimately dismissing them from consideration.
Without the testimonials from both witnesses, Gutierrez found the jury’s methodologies flawed and wrote that damages were awarded “based on improperly considered evidence.” The jury had also ignored Gutierrez’s instructions and performed their own overcharge calculations, he wrote.
“We believe that the NFL’s media distribution model provides our fans with an array of options to follow the game they love,” wrote the NFL on X. The league also thanked Gutierrez for his “time and attention to this case.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The class-action lawsuit included over two million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses that bought the telecast package between 2011 and 2022.
While the judge ruled in favor of the NFL, plaintiffs are likely to appeal.
