Is the NFL clear after a federal judge overturned the jury verdict in the ‘Sunday Ticket’ lawsuit?
In a major win for the NFL, a federal judge has overturned the verdict in the lawsuit brought against it, however, there may be more to come.
What stemmed from an initial complaint by a sports bar in San Francisco, later grew into a class action lawsuit that threatened to force the NFL to pay billions in damages. Today, it appears that the league has avoided the worst of it but caution from here on would be the best practice.
Judge overturns verdict in “Sunday Ticket” lawsuit
You will recall our previous report, which outlined the details of a ruling from a U.S. District Court in California that stated the NFL would have to pay $4.7 billion to fans who paid for the Sunday Ticket streaming package and further $96 million to bars who argued they were overcharged for the streaming package. It didn’t stop there either, with the aforementioned amount tripling under federal antitrust law to more than $14 billion. Needless to say, it would have been the single largest loss that the NFL had ever taken in its history.
As things stand, the league can now rest easier after reports on Thursday indicated that a federal judge overturned the jury verdict. It should be said that the decision is not entirely surprising after U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez, who oversaw the case, stated that the jury did not follow his instructions in determining damages, but rather used their own calculations to arrive at the above-mentioned figures. In his ruling, Gutierrez wrote that “the jury’s damages awards were not based on the ‘evidence and reasonable inferences’ but instead were more akin to ‘guesswork or speculation,’” According to reports, no new trial was ordered.
As for the NFL’s response, the league can now breathe a little easier and that’s something it indicated in an official statement. “We are grateful for today’s ruling in the Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the NFL said in its statement “We believe that the NFL’s media distribution model provides our fans with an array of options to follow the game they love, including local broadcasts of every single game on free over-the-air television. We thank Judge Gutierrez for his time and attention to this case and look forward to an exciting 2024 NFL season.” It should be said that it’s unlikely that the legal battle is completely over, however, what is clear is that the league dodged a major bullet as a result of the judge’s ruling.