ALBAWABA - A federal jury in California determined on Thursday that the National Football League has to shell out more than $4.7 billion in class-action settlements for charging customers excessive fees of its "Sunday Ticket" broadcasts.
Members of the jury in Los Angeles concurred with the plaintiffs that the NFL conspired with member teams to manipulate the price of "Sunday Ticket" for millions of homeowners and business subscribers, according to CNN, awarding $4.6 billion to the residential subscribers and $96 million to commercial ones such as restaurants and bars.
The lawsuit, which represented 2.4 million residential clients and 48,000 businesses that purchased the package of out-of-market games on DirecTV from the 2011 through 2022 seasons, alleged that the NFL violated antitrust regulations by offering its Sunday game package at an excessive cost and restricting competition by making "Sunday Ticket" available only via a satellite provider, CNBC reports.
Before making a verdict, the five-man and three-woman jury deliberated for about five hours. Under US antitrust law, a court may also issue treble damages, increasing the total judgment to almost $14 billion.
The NFL expressed its disappointment with the jury's decision in a statement, saying “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 […] is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.”
The league added that it would appeal the decision, saying it believes that the that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
