A jury on Thursday ordered the National Football League to pay about $4.8 billion, finding the league violated antitrust laws by distributing its “Sunday Ticket” packages of out-of-market games on a single satellite television service.
The months-long class action lawsuit awarded more than $4.6 billion in damages to a group of 2.4 million home subscribers and $96 million to a group of 48,000 companies that subscribed to the service. Damages can be tripled under federal antitrust law, meaning the NFL could be liable for as much as $14.39 billion, according to the Associated Press.
The NFL said in a statement Thursday that it would appeal the ruling.
“We are disappointed with today’s jury verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement.
“We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which provides every NFL game on free over-the-air television in participating teams’ markets, streams the most popular games nationally, and complements many options including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is arguably the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment,” the league continued. “We believe the class action claims in this case are frivolous and without merit, and we will certainly contest this decision.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued that the NFL restricts competition by selling packages of Sunday afternoon games at exorbitant prices and by offering the service only on satellite provider DirecTV.
“Justice has been served. The ruling upholds consumer protections for our class. It’s a great day for consumers,” plaintiffs’ attorney Bill Carmody said, according to the Associated Press.
The NFL has argued that it can sell out-of-market services under an antitrust exemption for broadcasting, but the plaintiffs argue that the exemption doesn’t apply to pay TV.
The Associated Press contributed.
