Court opens possibility that NFL Sunday Ticket case could expand to YouTube TV
On Friday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling overturning a judge’s decision to toss a jury verdict levied against the NFL over antitrust violations associated with its packaging of NFL Sunday Ticket to DirecTV. The case, which has been in the courts for about a decade, addressed whether the league violated antitrust…
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the NFL Sunday Ticket case could potentially expand to include YouTube TV. This decision comes after a jury found the NFL guilty of antitrust violations related to its Sunday Ticket package, which was priced artificially high to protect the value of CBS and Fox's Sunday afternoon programming.
The panel of judges sent the injunction claims back to the district court to assess their viability, given that the NFL's deal with DirecTV has now expired. The ongoing case, which has been ongoing for about a decade, centers around whether the NFL violated antitrust law by compelling DirecTV to price the Sunday Ticket product unnaturally high.
While the jury's assessment that the NFL was liable for the antitrust violations will stand, the amount the league owes in damages will be retried. According to legal expert Eriq Gardner, sending the injunction claims back to the district court could open the possibility for those claims to be extended to YouTube TV, which currently holds the NFL's out-of-market package.
Gardner suggests that this could result in the plaintiffs having a substantial starting point in their case, as a credible threat to the relationship between the NFL and YouTube TV could negatively impact the league far more than a disagreement over the calculation of damages owed to former DirecTV subscribers.
Written by urgent.news from Yahoo Sports's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
