| brassmonkey |
06-28-2024 10:11 AM |
NFL ordered to pay over $4.7 billion in 'Sunday Ticket' lawsuit
If you've purchased a "Sunday Ticket" package, you may want to listen up. On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the NFL to pay $4.7 billion in residential class damages and $96 million in commercial class damage in what has become known as the "Sunday Ticket" case.
This class-action lawsuit has been making its way through the courts dating nearly a decade when the case was originally filed in 2015. To break it down in simple terms, the plaintiffs have argued that the NFL worked together with its network partners to inflate the price of "Sunday Ticket," which would violate antitrust laws.
After this loss in court, the NFL announced that it would appeal the decision. Per ESPN, there will be a hearing on July 31 for post-trial motions, including one to set aside the verdict.
"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. We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from Judge Gutierrez throughout the trial."
According to the Associated Press, this case covers every residential and commercial customer who subscribed to "Sunday Ticket" between 2012 and 2022, putting the class-action number at roughly 2.5 million people.
|
