Federal judge overturns $4.7B verdict in NFL Sunday Ticket case
A judge has overturned the $4.7 billion verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket case, according to multiple reports. A jury previously ruled the league owed fans and bars after being overcharged for the service in the case, which saw testimony from Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez of the United States District Court for the Central District of California made the decision, and he indicated his plans to overturn the verdict earlier this week. He pointed out the jury got the amount of damages via a theory which wasn’t presented during the trial and the group “did not follow directions.”
Gutierrez’s decision is a major win for the NFL, and he explained his decision in a docket order. He argued the jury couldn’t find “class wide injury or damages” during the three-week trial.
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants Defendants’ judgment as a matter of law as without the testimonies of Dr. [Daniel] Rascher and Dr. [John] Zona no reasonable jury could have found class wide injury or damages,” the docket order read, via Daniel Kaplan.
The class-action case covered more than 2.45 million commercial and residential subscribers who could see up to $7.1 billion in damages. A jury then ruled the NFL would have to pay fans and bars that amount under federal antitrust law.
The plaintiffs accused the league of conspiring with the networks to maintain premium pricing on Sunday Ticket to encourage an increase in local viewing. Former NFL Network president Steve Borstein testified that Sunday Ticket was never intended to reduce CBS and FOX’s local ratings.
“The NFL always wanted ‘Sunday Ticket’ to be an additional package. That is how it was designed since its inception,” Bornstein said.
After the jury’s decision, the NFL released a statement and said it planned to appeal. The league also expressed disappointment and defended its strategy.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement. “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.”
Nikki Chavanelle contributed to this report.