DOJ wants to revive parts of the NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit
DOJ wants to revive parts of the NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit
The case resulted in a multi-billion dollar damages award from a jury, but the judge in the case threw out the verdict in favor of the NFL.
The twisting, turning saga of a group of NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers and their attempts to change the ways the league sells its out-of-market games service is currently in a holding pattern. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals now has the case on its docket, and the plaintiffs could be getting help from a new and powerful entity: the Department of Justice (DOJ). Justice officials filed an amicus brief saying that the decision to throw out a jury ruling in favor of the plaintiffs was in error and that the judge overseeing the trial improperly applied the law.
Key Details:
- A jury found a Sunday NFL ticket to be in violation of antitrust laws last summer.
- The judge in the case threw out that verdict, essentially allowing the league to resume business as normal with Sunday Ticket.
- DOJ called that decision “troubling,” and says the NFL is engaging in “illegal practices” with Sunday Ticket.”
The lawsuit first originated when a group of nearly 50,000 commercial customers, as well as more than 2 million residential Sunday Ticket subscribers sued the NFL and DIRECTV in 2015. The core of their argument was that because Sunday Ticket pools all out-of-market NFL rights, forcing customers to either buy in at a premium price or be stuck with the limited number of games on TV in their local market on a given Sunday, the service was in violation of antitrust laws.
In late June 2024, a jury agreed with those arguments. It awarded the plaintiffs billions of dollars in damages, but the presiding judge threw out that verdict, saying that the jury improperly calculated how damages should be awarded and that some expert testimony should have been disallowed.
The plaintiffs appealed that decision to the 9th Circuit Court, and in its amicus brief the DOJ agreed that setting aside the verdict was not the proper course of action.
“The district court erred by dismissing Plaintiffs’ injunctive claims on the basis that Plaintiffs failed to show actual injury, without ever considering threatened loss,” the Department wrote.
The Justice Department also said that the appellate court should consider whether an injunction is necessary to keep the league from gouging customers with a high-priced product that is fans’ only recourse for watching out-of-market NFL games.
“The NFL’s illegal practices are continuing. As a result, millions of NFL fans across the nation will continue to face a choice—watch only limited local games or pay “premium” prices for the Sunday Ticket bundle. Given that the challenged conduct has been found to have anticompetitive effects—yet continues out in the open—Plaintiffs are at least entitled to an opportunity to show that they meet the threatened loss standard for an injunction.”
The 9th Circuit has already sent the case back to lower courts once, so it will be interesting to see what actions it deems necessary this time. The DOJ’s amicus brief will likely carry some weight, but it may not be enough to result in a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.
NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket is a subscription video streaming service that allows football fans to watch every live out-of-market NFL game on Sunday afternoons on YouTube or YouTube TV.