A federal appellate court on Friday, October 30, ruled that a judge’s decision to toss a $4.7 billion jury award in the suit was an error and forwarded the case back to district court for a new trial on damages.
The original verdict holding the NFL liable was reinstated.
The lawsuit stemmed from ‘NFL Sunday Ticket’ subscribers accusing the league, its teams and its network partners of working together to sell the out-of-market sports package at an inflated price and restrict competition.
The jury had awarded $4.7 billion in damages to subscribers in 2024, but U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez set aside the verdict after determining some expert testimony should have been excluded.
On Friday, October 30, a three-judge appellate panel ruled that Gutierrez’s decision was an abuse of the court’s discretion and that the testimony should have been allowed.
In its judgement, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Anthony D. Johnstone wrote, “Opinions are neither unfounded nor unreliable merely because they are impeachable.
“Such opinions are for the jury to weigh at trial. Once a jury does so, its verdict must stand unless it is clearly not supported by the evidence.”
In a statement, NFL said, “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.”
The lawsuit was filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco.
On June 30, 2017, U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell tossed the lawsuit, per Associated Press.
Two years later, the U.S. appellate court reinstated the case. In 2023 Gutierrez ruled the case could proceed as a class action, which happened in June 2024.
