When a business is hit with a $14.1 billion antitrust verdict, it is usually big news.
But it got little notice when a lawsuit filed on behalf of subscribers to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket were awarded $4.7 billion in damages that are trebled to $14.1 billion because of the antitrust violation. Commercial subscribers were awarded $96 million.
The crux of the case was that the NFL was overcharging for the service to protect the Fox and CBS Sunday packages. In effect, the NFL was selling the rights to the games twice and kept the price high so Fox and CBS didn’t lose too many viewers.
The NFL made a deal last year with YouTube to sell the package of all the games for $349 million. ESPN offered to sell customers one team a year for $70, but the NFL rejected that idea. They also did not want to sell single-game packages.
The NFL still has three shots at an appeal to the presiding judge, the circuit court and eventually the Supreme Court.
If it could lose all the appeals, the NFL teams could have to pay $440 million each, which is a big number even for the NFL.
If they lose the appeals on the first two levels, they still may have a good chance to get it overturned by the conservative Supreme Court.
The NFL already has an antitrust exemption to sell league-wide packages and when the Supreme Court declined to hear the case the first time, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that if each team had to negotiate individual contracts it could mean “substantial tension” with antitrust principles.
On the other hand, if the NFL loses the appeals, the owners will be unhappy. Whether commissioner Roger Goodell would get some flak if they have to pay $440 million remains to be seen.
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