Appeals Court Reinstates NFL Sunday Ticket Liability Verdict, Orders New Trial on Damages

A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated a jury verdict against the National Football League in the Sunday Ticket antitrust case, restoring the finding that the league broke the law in how it sold its out of market game package. The court did not restore the money. It ordered a new trial on damages, so a jury will decide again how much the NFL must pay subscribers who said they were overcharged for more than a decade.

The ruling came from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco. It overturned a decision by US District Judge Philip Gutierrez in Los Angeles, who had thrown out a $4.7 billion verdict after the 2024 trial. "We remand this case for the district court to reinstate the jury's liability verdict and hold a new damages trial," the panel wrote. It added: "We affirm the district court's order granting a new trial on damages."

Why the panel sided with subscribers on liability

The panel found that Judge Gutierrez improperly excluded expert testimony that residential and commercial subscribers used to show the NFL television distribution system led to higher subscription prices. In its summary of the ruling, the court said the district court abused its discretion by excluding that testimony on antitrust injury and damages.

The panel held that expert opinions are not unfounded or unreliable merely because the other side can challenge them. By looking beyond the reliability of the experts methods and the sufficiency of their data, the district court went further than its gatekeeping role allows under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, the panel said.

On damages, the panel took the opposite view of the first jury work. It agreed the jury had incorrectly calculated the award. "The jury clearly awarded damages based on its improper consideration of the evidence rather than according to the district court's instructions. This warrants a new trial on damages," the panel wrote.

A case that began in 2015

Subscribers filed the lawsuit in 2015. They accused the NFL and DIRECTV of restricting competition by requiring homes and businesses to buy a single package to watch Sunday afternoon games that were not shown on local CBS and Fox affiliates. DIRECTV carried Sunday Ticket for nearly three decades before the package moved to Google YouTube in 2023.

After a monthlong trial in 2024, a federal jury awarded about $4.6 billion to residential subscribers and another $96 million to commercial customers, including bars and restaurants. Judge Gutierrez later overturned the verdict. He ruled that experts retained by the plaintiffs had relied on unreliable assumptions and flawed calculations to estimate the overcharges.

According to ESPN reporting cited by Cord Cutters News, the class covered 2.4 million residential customers and 48,000 business customers between 2011 and 2022.

What happens next

The new trial will cover damages only, not liability. That distinction matters for the size of the final bill. Damages can be tripled under federal antitrust law, and Sports Media Watch reported the league could have faced more than $14 billion had the original award stood. No new award exists yet, and the $4.7 billion figure is not back in force.

The case is not over. The NFL said it plans to seek further appellate review of a case that has now lasted for more than a decade. Until that review is decided, the liability verdict stands restored and the damages question waits for a courtroom.