NFL hit with $4.7 billion verdict because of Sunday Ticket conspiracy

The National Football League has been ordered to pay over $4.7 billion in damages in a class-action lawsuit for overcharging subscribers of its “Sunday Ticket” telecasts. This verdict came from a federal jury in Los Angeles, which decided that the NFL conspired with its member teams to inflate the prices of the “Sunday Ticket” packages, affecting millions of residential and commercial subscribers.

BREAKING: The NFL has been ordered to pay fans $4.7 billion in damages as a result of its Sunday Ticket antitrust trial.

And since antitrust cases can triple damages, the actual number is over $14 billion.

That’s thousands of dollars per household. pic.twitter.com/jlMRBqez05

— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) June 27, 2024

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Specifically, the jury awarded $4.6 billion to a residential class and $96 million to commercial subscribers, including bars and restaurants. Due to U.S. antitrust laws, which allow for the possibility of triple damages in such cases, the total judgment against the NFL could exceed $14 billion.

In response to the verdict, the NFL expressed disappointment and indicated plans to contest the decision, arguing that the class action claims were baseless and without merit. Earlier in the week, the NFL had requested the court to rule in its favor as a matter of law, which, if granted, could potentially nullify the jury’s verdict.

This trial, which began on June 5, concluded over a decade of litigation concerning the “Sunday Ticket” telecasts. The plaintiffs accused the NFL of leveraging agreements with broadcast partners to maintain a monopolistic hold on distribution. This arrangement allegedly enabled DirecTV, the former exclusive distributor of “Sunday Ticket,” to charge artificially high prices for the service.