In June, a Los Angeles federal jury ordered over $4.7 billion in damages be awarded to residential and commercial “Sunday Ticket” subscribers, which included restaurants and bars.
That verdict came after the jury found the NFL had violated antitrust laws by restricting the availability of “Sunday Ticket,” which allows viewers to watch out-of-market games but requires them to purchase access to a bundle of games to do so.
However, in an Aug. 1 ruling, Los Angeles-based U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez pointed to testimonies from two key witnesses for the subscribers in the June trial, noting they contained flawed methodologies that should have been excluded.
The jury’s damages verdict was otherwise unsupported by the evidence, he said.
“The Court agrees that Dr. Rascher’s and Dr. Zona’s testimonies based on their flawed methodologies should be excluded,” the judge wrote. “And because there was no other support for the class-wide injury and damages elements of Plaintiffs [...] claims, judgment as a matter of law for the Defendants is appropriate.”
The jury’s damages awards “were not based on the ‘evidence and reasonable inferences’ but instead were more akin to ’guesswork or speculation'” he said.
“For the forgoing [sic] reasons, the Court GRANTS Defendants’ judgment as a matter of law as, without the testimonies of Dr. Rascher and Dr. Zona, no reasonable jury could have found class-wide injury or damages,” the judge concluded.
Package Violates Antitrust Laws, Lawsuit Alleged
Restricting availability allowed DirecTV to charge artificially higher prices as its former sole distributor, a jury found in June.The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses who paid for the “Sunday Ticket” package from DirecTV, or its subsidiaries, at any time between 2011 and 2022.
DirecTV was not on trial on the matter.
Plaintiffs argued the package violated antitrust laws because it effectively “results in the blackout or unavailability of out-of-market games” unless consumers bought the “Sunday Ticket” package at inflated prices.
They further argued that the deal “results in substantial injury to competition.”
Defending their actions in the lawsuit, attorneys for the NFL had argued the “Sunday Ticket” program was exempt from antitrust scrutiny under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961.
That act allowed the NFL to sell its TV rights as a group, despite the league consisting of 32 team owners who collectively own all the big TV rights, attorneys said.
Following the June verdict, the league said it planned to appeal.
The Epoch Times has contacted attorneys for the plaintiffs for comment.
