The NFL Sunday Ticket verdict that a trial judge set aside is partly back. On Friday 30 October the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated the jury’s finding that the league and its teams broke antitrust law in how the package was priced, and sent the case back for a new trial on damages.
That split is the whole story. The NFL lost the argument it most wanted to win, and the subscribers lost the number that made the case famous.
What the NFL Sunday Ticket verdict ruling actually did
The panel directed the district court to reinstate the jury’s liability verdict and hold a new damages trial. Liability therefore stands: a jury in July 2024 found the NFL had violated federal antitrust law in the pricing of Sunday Ticket, and that finding has survived.
The roughly $4.7 billion award did not. The panel held it was “not based on a proper consideration of the evidence” and rested instead on “speculation or guesswork”. It also found the trial court “abused its discretion” when it excluded expert testimony, which is the error that forces the damages question to be tried again.
Why the money figure matters so much
Antitrust damages are trebled once a verdict becomes a judgment, which is how a $4.7 billion jury award turns into a far larger liability. On the original figure, each club faced about $440 million before statutory interest was added.
A new jury could land anywhere. It may reach a lower number, a similar one, or in theory a higher one, and until it does there is no judgment to treble. Readers who follow the league’s finances can see how those sums compare against our explainer on the NFL salary cap, where $440 million per club is a figure with real consequences.
Where the case goes next
Proceedings return to federal court in Los Angeles. Either side can ask a larger Ninth Circuit panel to rehear the appeal or petition the Supreme Court, and Sportico noted that the league is widely expected to keep appealing. The practical obstacle is timing: the case may not be ripe for the Supreme Court until the new damages trial has actually happened.
For anyone whose interest in this is as a subscriber rather than a lawyer, the mechanics of pursuing money back from a company are covered in our guide to small claims court, though a certified class action of this size runs on an entirely different track.
What has and has not been decided
Decided: the NFL and its clubs broke federal antitrust law in how Sunday Ticket was priced. A jury found that in July 2024, the trial judge left it standing, and the Ninth Circuit has now reinstated it. That is the finding the league spent two years trying to undo.
Not decided: anything to do with money. The $4.7 billion is vacated rather than restored, and a new jury could return less, roughly the same, or more. Because antitrust damages are tripled once a verdict becomes a judgment, the eventual exposure depends entirely on a trial that has not been scheduled, in a case either side can still try to move to the Supreme Court.
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