NFL faces $4.7B in damages after jury finds 'Sunday Ticket' violated antitrust laws

LOS ANGELES - An 8-person jury on Thursday found the National Football League violated antitrust laws with its licensing of out-of-market Sunday afternoon football games on its "Sunday Ticket" broadcast package, awarding more than $4.7 billion to a class that consists of millions of nationwide subscribers from 2011 to 2023.

The verdict came just a day after the close of a month-long trial brought by the plaintiffs' counsel at Susman Godfrey LLP, Hausfeld LLP and Langer Grogan & Diver PC. According to Susman Godfrey partner William C. Carmody, the jury deliberated for only "a couple of hours," before returning with a verdict that awarded 2.4 million residential subscribers $4.7 billion and 48,000 commercial businesses $98 million. Pursuant to the treble damages remedy under the federal antitrust statute, the NFL could be liable for triple that amount in final damages.

"Justice was done. It was a great day for consumers everywhere," Carmody said in a phone interview.

In a joint statement from the winning counsel, the attorneys said: "After many years, we are pleased with today's result on behalf of the classes we represent. We thank the jury for their service."

The NFL's counsel at Wilkinson Stekloff LLP could not be reached for a comment by press deadline Thursday.

Vice President of Communications for the NFL, Alex Riethmiller, said in a statement: "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 9-year-old case is far from finished, with the NFL vowing to appeal.

"We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from [U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez] throughout the trial," Riethmiller wrote.

The NFL was accused of conspiring with free, over-the-air television networks and DirecTV - the exclusive distributor of Sunday Ticket during the class period - to unlawfully force fans to purchase the package by limiting out-of-market football games to a paid subscription service at artificially high prices. In re: National Football League's Sunday Ticket Antitrust Litigation, 2:15-ml-02668 (C.D. Cal., filed Dec. 10, 2015).

The NFL argued the league's network agreements are exempt from antitrust scrutiny pursuant to the Sports Broadcasting Act and the plaintiffs' evidence failed to prove how they conspired with other networks to stifle competition. A main defense the NFL used during the trial was that Sunday Ticket was a complimentary "premium product," which therefore allowed the league to charge it at a premium price for its most "avid fans."