A U.S. District Judge overturned a June 27 verdict against the NFL in a lawsuit about overcharging subscribers for its "Sunday Ticket" telecast because of a "runaway" jury.
The league was originally ordered to pay $96 million to commercial "Sunday Ticket" subscribers and a further $4.7 billion to residential subscribers in the original verdict. The lawsuit covered 2.4 million subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the U.S. who paid for "Sunday Ticket" from the 2011 through 2022 seasons.
Los Angeles-based Judge Philip Gutierrez - the presiding judge over the lawsuit - has overturned the verdict and granted judgment to the NFL in this case. He said the jury came up with the $4.7 billion total using a theory not presented during the trial, per Courthouse News .
"There's no doubt about what they did," Gutierrez said, according to Courthouse News. "They didn't follow the instructions."
His ruling today named two witnesses in the lawsuit whose testimony should have been excluded and played an integral role in the jury's monetary decision.
“Without the testimonies of Dr. [Daniel] Rascher and Dr. [John] Zona, no reasonable jury could have found class-wide injury or damages,” he stated in his 16-page ruling.
Sunday Ticket lawsuit: What's next?
Gutierrez has presided over this case for years. He previously ruled in favor of the NFL and dismissed the case before it was reinstated in 2019. He could reduce the damages significantly, all the way down to $1 or order a new trial on that issue alone, per NBC Sports NFL analyst Mike Florio .
The NFL was expected to appeal this case that began in 2015 as far as the Supreme Court. Yesterday, they asked Gutierrez to set aside the verdict before he ultimately did so.
“We asked the district court to set aside the jury’s verdict in this case, which is contrary to the law and unsupported by the evidence presented at trial," the NFL said in a statement sent to USA TODAY.
"The NFL's media distribution model is the most fan friendly in sports, with all games broadcast locally on free over-the-air television in addition to many other choices available to fans who want even more access to NFL content," the statement said. "We will continue to pursue all avenues in defense of the claims brought in this case.”
The subscribers can appeal this ruling to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Contributing: Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Judge overturns $4.7 billion Sunday Ticket verdict: Jury 'didn't follow instructions'
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