By Mike Scarcella
(Reuters) – A U.S. choose in California on Thursday threw out a $4.7 billion verdict towards the Nationwide Soccer League in a lawsuit claiming it overcharged subscribers to its Sunday Ticket recreation telecasts for greater than a decade.
The ruling by Los Angeles-based U.S. District Decide Philip Gutierrez adopted arguments by the NFL that the decision was unjustified and the results of a “runaway” jury.
The NFL and attorneys for the subscribers didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
“Sunday Ticket” is the one broadcast choice for NFL followers who need to watch their groups play out-of-market video games. The subscribers alleged “Sunday Ticket” costs have been inflated to restrict subscriptions and shield distribution rights charges that broadcast networks paid to air video games in native markets.
The court docket’s ruling granting judgment as a matter of legislation to the NFL might be appealed to the San Francisco-based ninth U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals.
A Los Angeles federal jury stated in its June 27 verdict that the NFL had restricted the supply of “Sunday Ticket,” permitting DirecTV to cost artificially increased costs as its former sole distributor. DirecTV was not on trial.
The jury awarded $4.6 billion based mostly on 24.1 million residential subscriptions all through the 12-year class interval, and $96.9 million based mostly on about 506,780 industrial subscriptions for bars and eating places.
The NFL in a court docket submitting referred to as the damages quantity “nonsensical” based mostly on the proof the jury was allowed to think about and denied subscribers have been overcharged.
The subscribers countered that the NFL based mostly its arguments on “pure conjecture” into the jury’s reasoning and stated there was no proof the jurors relied on proof they have been informed to disregard.
U.S. antitrust legislation permits for the tripling of damages awards, probably growing the worth of the decision to $14 billion.
