{"id":1481301,"date":"2024-08-02T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1481301"},"modified":"2024-08-02T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T03:00:00","slug":"judge-overturns-4-7-billion-verdict-in-nfl-sunday-ticket-antitrust-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/judge-overturns-4-7-billion-verdict-in-nfl-sunday-ticket-antitrust-lawsuit\/1481301\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Overturns $4.7 Billion Verdict In NFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge Overturns $4.7 Billion Verdict In NFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Lawsuit<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

A California judge has thrown out the $4.7 billion verdict<\/a> against the National Football League (NFL), which resulted from a lawsuit alleging antitrust violations in its \u201cSunday Ticket\u201d programming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The NFL logo is displayed on the turf at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, on Sept. 14, 2014. (Doug Pensinger\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In June, a Los Angeles federal jury ordered over $4.7 billion in damages <\/strong>be awarded to residential and commercial \u201cSunday Ticket\u201d subscribers, which included restaurants and bars.<\/p>\n

That verdict came after the jury found the NFL had\u00a0violated antitrust laws by restricting the availability of \u201cSunday Ticket,\u201d which allows viewers to watch out-of-market games but requires them to purchase access to a bundle of games to do so.<\/p>\n

However, in an Aug. 1 ruling, Los Angeles-based U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez pointed to testimonies from two key witnesses<\/strong> for the subscribers in the June trial, noting they contained flawed methodologies that should have been excluded.<\/p>\n

The jury\u2019s damages verdict was otherwise unsupported by the evidence, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court agrees that Dr. Rascher\u2019s and Dr. Zona\u2019s testimonies based on their flawed methodologies should be excluded,<\/strong>\u201d the judge wrote. \u201cAnd because there was no other support for the class-wide injury and damages elements of Plaintiffs […] claims, judgment as a matter of law for the Defendants is appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury\u2019s damages awards \u201cwere not based on the \u2018evidence and reasonable inferences\u2019 but instead were more akin to \u2019guesswork or speculation’\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the forgoing [sic] reasons, the Court GRANTS Defendants\u2019 judgment as a matter of law as, without the testimonies of Dr. Rascher and Dr. Zona, no reasonable jury could have found class-wide injury or damages<\/strong>,\u201d the judge concluded.<\/p>\n

The NFL welcomed the ruling in a statement<\/a> on X, saying it was \u201cgrateful\u201d for the judge\u2019s decision in the class action lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that the NFL\u2019s 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,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWe thank Judge Gutierrez for his time and attention to this case and look forward to an exciting 2024 NFL season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Package Violates Antitrust Laws, Lawsuit Alleged<\/h2>\n

Restricting availability allowed DirecTV to charge artificially higher prices as its former sole distributor, a jury found in June.<\/p>\n

The ruling stemmed from a class action lawsuit<\/a> filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco alleging the league \u201cconspired\u201d with distributor DirecTV to raise prices for the \u201cSunday Ticket\u201d package.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses who paid for the \u201cSunday Ticket\u201d package from DirecTV, or its subsidiaries, at any time between 2011 and 2022.<\/p>\n

DirecTV was not on trial on the matter.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs argued the package violated antitrust laws because it effectively \u201cresults in the blackout or unavailability of out-of-market games\u201d unless consumers bought the \u201cSunday Ticket\u201d package at inflated prices.<\/p>\n

They further argued that the deal \u201cresults in substantial injury to competition.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Defending their actions in the lawsuit,\u00a0attorneys for the NFL had argued the \u201cSunday Ticket\u201d program was exempt from antitrust scrutiny under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961.<\/p>\n

That act\u00a0allowed the NFL to sell its TV rights as a group, despite the league consisting of 32 team owners who collectively own all the big TV rights, attorneys said.<\/p>\n

Following the June verdict, the league said it planned to appeal.<\/p>\n

The Epoch Times has contacted attorneys for the plaintiffs for comment.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 08\/02\/2024 – 19:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/judge-overturns-47-billion-verdict-nfl-sunday-ticket-antitrust-lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge Overturns $4.7 Billion Verdict In NFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Lawsuit Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A California judge has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1481302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1481301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1481301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1481301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1481301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1481301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}