Last summer, the NFL suffered a stunning defeat in the Sunday Ticket class-action. Until the judge wiped out billions in liability with the stroke of a pen.
The appeal of the decision inches forward.
Eriq Gardner of Puck reports that the plaintiffs have resubmitted their initial brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — and that the offering includes an alternate formula for calculating damages.
The case ended not because of a failure to prove an antitrust violation. Judge Philip Gutierrez scrapped the entire verdict based on the perceived flaws in expert testimony regarding financial harm, after he failed to block the jury from hearing the evidence.
The appeal could be resolved with both a ruling that the case should be sent back to the lower court for a new trial on damages, along with an order requiring the NFL to disband its current model for selling out-of-market games to consumers through the Sunday Ticket product.
Before the change in administrations, the Department of Justice expressed support for the plaintiffs’ efforts to end Sunday Ticket.
“The NFL’s illegal acts are continuing,” the government argued, per Gardner. The point is a simple one — the question of whether the proven antitrust violations should end is separate from whether the plaintiffs sufficiently proved the amount of financial harm arising during the period covered by the class action.
Previously, the Ninth Circuit resurrected the case after another lower-court judge threw it out. It’s possible that, once again, the appeals court will salvage the case in a way that dramatically changes the current system of forcing consumers who want to see one team’s out-of-market games to pay an exorbitant price for access to all of them.
However it plays out in the Ninth Circuit, the Supreme Court hovers over the entire litigation. That’s where there’s a current majority of justices who will be philosophically inclined to support the NFL’s position — including one who was previously gifted a Super Bowl ring by Jerry Jones.
