NFL forced to pay $4.7 billion to fans and $96 million in damages to bars after jury declares verdict in ‘Sunday Ticket Trial’

The Jury announced that the NFL broke the Anti Trust Laws by inflating the prices for the Sunday Game Tickets.

NFL forced to pay $4.7 billion to fans and $96 million in damages to bars after jury declares verdict in ‘Sunday Ticket Trial’

NFL has to pay $4.7 billion for losing Sunday Ticket Case (Image via IMAGO)

In a remarkable turn of events, the NFL has been ordered to pay $4.7 billion in damages by a jury in a Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. The verdict was announced on Thursday which includes a $96 million additional remunerations to the bars who complained about being charged extra during game days.

A lawsuit was filed in 2015 by a bar named Mucky Duck back in 2015, claiming that the league violated the anti-trust laws for not allowing packages to buy games from a single team per Front Office Sports. It argued that the league purposefully inflated the package of NFL Sunday Ticket, Today on YouTube TV which stood at $349 per year.

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The Jury announced that those rules by the league committee violated federal Anti-Trust Laws. So now the NFL has to pay $4.7 billion.

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The league has been ordered to pay $96 million to bars who said they were overcharged for Sunday Ticket, and $4.7 billion to fans who paid for the streaming package. Under federal antitrust law, those damages are tripled, bringing the total to more than $14 billion.
Front Office Sports wrote, according to legal reporter Meghann Cuniff

It is worth noting that the jury comprising 8 people nearly took 5 hours before passing the verdict.

The NFL issued a statement after the Sunday Ticket Case verdict went against them

Soon after it was announced that the NFL had lost the Sunday Ticket case in court, they issued a statement showing their disappointment with the verdict. The league committee said they are ready to contest the decision, so it will drag on.

NFL forced to pay $4.7 billion to fans and $96 million in damages to bars after jury declares verdict in 'Sunday Ticket Trial'
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (Image via IMAGO)

Sports Business Journal’s Ben Fisher shared the statement on X.

We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless [and without merit.] We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from Judge Gutierrez throughout the trial.
NFL representative Alex Riethmiller said in the statement

The league has complete faith in its distribution strategies. According to them, this is certainly the fairest method.

Judging by the comments the NFL committee could take this to the Supreme Court. It means that fans have no other choice but to continue to pay the inflated prices.

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