NFL Loses Major Court Battle And Will Appeal

In a blow to the biggest sports league in the nation, a 10-year lawsuit has been decided. Found guilty by an 8-person jury, the NFL loses a major court battle in a U.S. district court and will appeal the decision. Composed of five men and three women, the jury found the NFL guilty of antitrust laws regarding their “Sunday Ticket” subscription service. The subscription service is used to distribute out-of-market NFL games played on Sundays. Damages of nearly $4.8 billion were awarded to both residential and commercial subscribers of the service. But of course, that doesn’t mean that the plaintiffs can expect a payment anytime soon.

So how did all this litigation get started. Here’s what Joe Reedy of AP wrote, “The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco. On June 30, 2017, U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell dismissed the lawsuit and ruled for the NFL. Two years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the case.” Mucky Duck’s complaint was that the league violated anti-trust laws by bundling all out-of-market games. In addition, the subscription service has also only been available through one provider, and the lawsuit claimed the NFL inflated the price.

So as Joe Reedy summarized, “The league broke antitrust laws by selling “Sunday Ticket” only on DirecTV and at an inflated price. By offering the service on only one distributor and with a high price, that limited the subscriber base and satisfied concerns by CBS and Fox about preserving local ratings while the NFL got a lot of money for its broadcast rights.” Many subscribers just wanted to see their favorite team but the NFL refused to make single-team packages available.

NFL Loses Major Court Battle And Will Appeal

Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones testified in court defending the Sunday Ticket model. He said, “I am convinced I would make a lot more money than the Bengals. “I’m completely against each team doing TV deals. It is flawed.” But would it really be an unfair advantage to the bigger market teams? Smaller markets would likely still make a substantial amount of money. And their fans would be happier being able to watch their team on Sundays.

However, that’s just one of many issues and the case is far from settled. Judge Philip S. Gutierrez is scheduled to hear post-trial motions on July 17. One of which is the NFL’s request to have him rule in favor of the league because the judge determined the plaintiffs did not prove their case. It’ll be interesting to see how the judge rules on that. Stay tuned to see what happens next.

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