The NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit may not be dead after all
The NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit may not be dead after all
The case is headed to the Ninth Circuit for an appeal, where one judge wrote this week that the plaintiffs may have a strong case.
NFL teams have a fair prospect of winning or losing every time they step on the field. But when the league itself steps into the courtroom, it does whatever it takes to come out ahead. The NFL’s determination was on full display throughout the class-action lawsuit filed against NFL Sunday Ticket, which ended in a jury ruling in favor of the plaintiffs. The judge in the case shockingly set aside that verdict, but the case may have new life on the appeals circuit.
Key Details:
- Ready to go again: The NFL and the plaintiffs are currently preparing briefs for the appeal of the suit.
- Good chance: Judge George H Wu has hinted that the plaintiffs had a strong line of argument to pursue.
- Still months away: The lawsuit is still a ways away from getting rolling again, if it ever does.
The lawsuit against NFL Sunday Ticket represents a class of millions of residential customers and thousands of commercial buyers as well. It alleges that by packaging out-of-market games from the NFL into a single package, the league unlawfully colluded to restrain distribution of those rights and forced viewers to pay an artificially premium price for the product.
Despite a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, Judge Phillip Gutierrez threw out the damages awarded on grounds that expert witnesses had testified improperly, and that the formula used by the jury to calculate damages was not correct.
The plaintiffs have decided to take their case to the Ninth Circuit for appeals, and on Wednesday, a judge there said that they might just have a chance if things progress. Judge George H. Wu wrote that the plaintiffs have a “fair prospect” of success in advancing the argument that their claims for injunctive relief were improperly dismissed by Judge Gutierrez.
Injunctive relief was never touched on by Judge Gutierrez in his ruling in favor of the NFL, despite the plaintiffs’ argument that they were still being harmed by unlawful practices on the NFL’s part. That could be the opening the plaintiffs need to successfully stop the NFL from selling out-of-market rights to all 32 teams in one package.
To be sure, there are several steps involved before the plaintiffs get to try that argument in court. The NFL and the plaintiffs are preparing briefs for the Ninth Circuit now, and the appeals court may not take up the case at all if it declines to overturn Judge Gutierrez’s decision to toss the jury verdict. Either way, we’re months away from learning whether the suit will continue.
But if the Ninth Circuit does overturn that ruling, Judge Wu and his colleagues will give the NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit new life. And this time, it may have a much stronger chance of success in breaking up Sunday Ticket, which could lead to a mad scramble for the league’s out-of-market TV rights.
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.