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A jury had previously found that the NFL had violated federal antitrust laws with its Sunday Ticket package. (Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
A federal judge overturned the jury verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit on Thursday afternoon, according to multiple reports.
A Los Angeles jury ruled earlier this month that the league had violated antitrust laws by selling its “Sunday Ticket” package only on DirectTV at an inflated price, which set the league up to be potentially liable for more than $14 billion in damages. Now, though, that ruling has been overturned in what is a huge win for the league ahead of the 2024 season.
BREAKING: A federal district judge has overturned the jury verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket case
— Daniel Kaplan (@KaplanSportsBiz) August 1, 2024
A class-action lawsuit was brought against the NFL earlier this year alleging that it violated antitrust laws restricting competition in an effort to protect its deals with Fox and CBS for Sunday afternoon games each season. DirectTV had Sunday Ticket exclusively from 1994-2022, and then YouTube TV took over before the 2023 season. The package typically costs $349 per season.
The lawsuit argued that the NFL kept the cost of Sunday Ticket artificially high in order to profit off of fans who wanted to watch their favorite team play in out-of-market games and bars who wanted to attract customers on game days. This, the lawsuit argued, priced otu most fans and forced them to only watch the local game instead.
The NFL argued throughout the lawsuit that Sunday Ticket was simply a premium service, and that it came at a premium price.
“The case is about choice,” NFL attorney Beth Wilkinson said to the jury during the case. “This is a valuable, premium product. Think about all the choices available to fans? We want as many people as possible to watch the free broadcasts.”
This post will be updated with more information shortly.
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/federal-judge-reportedly-overturns-jury-verdict-in-nfls-sunday-ticket-lawsuit-in-win-for-league-234435745.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-08-01 23:44:35
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