The judge presiding over the lawsuit filed by Sunday Ticket subscribers against the NFL said the jury did not follow his instructions in determining damages.
U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez made the remark as he heard the NFL’s post-trial motion asking Gutierrez to rule for the league if he finds the plaintiffs don’t prove their case.
Gutierrez could also order a new trial because the eight-person jury came up with its own damages calculations.
There is no timeline for when Gutierrez may rule on the motion.
In his jury instructions before closing arguments on June 26, Gutierrez said that “damages may not be based on guesswork or speculation. Plaintiffs must prove the reasonableness of each of the assumptions on which the damage calculation is based.
A federal jury on June 27 awarded $4.7 billion in damages to residential and commercial subscribers after ruling that the NFL violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.
The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the U.S. that paid for DirecTV’s package of out-of-market games from the 2011 to 2022 seasons. The lawsuit alleged the league violated antitrust laws by selling the package at an inflated price. Subscribers also say the league limited competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” on only one satellite provider.
The jury of five men and three women found the NFL liable for $4,610,331,671.74 in residential class damages (home subscribers) and $96,928,272.90 in commercial class damages (business subscribers).
The jury’s sum did not match the college football model ($7.01 billion) by Daniel Rascher, an economist at the University of San Francisco, or the multidistributor model ($3.48 billion) by John Zona, who was an expert witness in the case .
Instead, the panel used the 2021 list price of $293.96 and deducted $102.74, the average price actually paid by residential Sunday Ticket subscribers. The jury then used the $191.26 it deemed an “overpayment” and multiplied it by the number of subscribers to come up with the amount of damages.
“The amount of damages is indefensible,” NFL attorney Brian Stekloff said during his remarks to Gutierrez.
Marc Seltzer, representing Sunday Ticket subscribers, countered by saying “the evidence to the jury supported our case from the beginning.”
“Today we asked the district court to vacate the jury’s verdict in this case, which is contrary to law and unsupported by the evidence presented at trial,” the NFL said in a statement. The NFL’s media distribution model is the most fan-friendly model in sports, with all games broadcast locally on free-to-air television, as well as many other choices available for fans who want even more access in NFL content. We will continue to pursue all avenues in defense of the claims raised in this case.â€
Since damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could end up being liable for $14,121,779,833.92.
The NFL has said it will appeal the decision. That appeal would go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the Supreme Court.
Payment of damages, any changes to the Sunday Ticket package and/or the ways the NFL conducts its Sunday afternoon games will be halted until all appeals are resolved.
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