The NFL is being ordered to pay $4 billion following an antitrust trial.
The lawsuit claimed the league knowingly priced TV packages to inflate ratings and charge fans more to watch games and companies to show them.
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The complaint alleged that the NFL was trying to keep ratings high for games on CBS and FOX, which resulted in higher prices.
The streaming package costs $349 per year.
“The jury said yes to all questions of liability, including that @DIRECTV knowingly entered into the price-fixing conspiracy with @NFL during Sunday Ticket,” reporter Meghann Cuniff tweeted.
The verdict means the NFL will pay billions of dollars in damages to those who purchased the Sunday Ticket.
The collective action was joined by 2.4 million individual subscribers and 48 thousand companies, such as bars and restaurants.
The jury ordered the NFL to pay $96 million to business class and $4 billion to individual subscribers.
Those payments will increase to more than $12 billion due to antitrust laws, according to Pro Football Network.
The NFL said it will “certainly” appeal the verdict, calling the lawsuit “baseless and meritless.”
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“We are disappointed in the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement.
“We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features every NFL game broadcast on free broadcast television in participating team markets and national distribution of our most popular games, complemented by many additional options, including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+ are by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.”
It is possible that the case will reach the US Supreme Court.
The lawsuit was initially filed in 2015 by a San Francisco sports bar called Mighty Duck.
The bar alleged that the NFL violated antitrust processes by not offering a single-team package.
The case was dismissed in 2017 but was revived in 2019 and eventually grew to include millions of private and commercial subscribers.
It was also revealed that the NFL turned down a proposal from ESPN that would have reduced the cost of the Sunday Ticket to $70 per year.
NFL fans rejoiced at the news of the lawsuit and hoped to see some money coming in.
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“I WANT MY CHECK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” one fan said.
“I have been a Sunday Ticket subscriber for 23 years. I just want to watch the Browns while I live in Los Angeles. I hope some of that money is coming to me,” said another fan.
“The corporate defeat of the NFL is always very gratifying,” said a fourth fan.
“The NFL has been stealing fans for some time now. Karma,” said a fourth fan.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
