SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — A federal appeals court on Friday put the NFL back on the hook in the long-running fight over its Sunday Ticket out-of-market package, reinstating a jury finding that the league violated antitrust law.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the trial judge in Los Angeles abused his discretion when he threw out testimony from the subscribers’ expert witnesses. Without those experts, U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez had ruled the subscribers could not prove their case and entered judgment for the league. The appeals court reversed that judgment.
The subscribers will not get the $4.7 billion a jury awarded them two years ago, at least not yet. The panel agreed with Gutierrez that the damages figure was not supported by the evidence and upheld his order for a new trial limited to damages. A new jury in Los Angeles will decide how much the league owes.
In the opinion, Judge Anthony Johnstone wrote that a trial court must screen experts for reliable methods but should not let its own view of their credibility decide whether a jury hears them. The panel heard arguments in the case in March. Gutierrez retired shortly after the trial.
The class action, brought under the Sherman Act on behalf of DirecTV subscribers, argues the league kept the price of the package high to protect the Sunday afternoon broadcasts that networks pay billions to air in local markets. At trial, one expert compared the NFL setup with how college football games became more widely available after the Supreme Court struck down NCAA control of TV rights. Another described selling single out-of-market games directly to fans through apps.
The package now streams on YouTube TV, where returning subscribers pay about $480 a season. The case has followed the league for about a decade.
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