Business 3 min read By Lauren Baxter
Appeals Court Orders New Trial in NFL Sunday Ticket Damages Case
A federal appeals court has ordered a new trial to determine how much the NFL must pay subscribers it allegedly overcharged for its Sunday Ticket out-of-market package, after a previous verdict awarded a multibillion-dollar payout.
A federal appeals court has ordered a new trial in the class-action lawsuit against the NFL over its Sunday Ticket out-of-market games package. The retrial will determine how much the league must pay in financial damages to affected subscribers, who argued they were overcharged by the NFL and its broadcast partners for the service.
The ruling came from the 9th Circuit on a Friday, which concluded that the damages question must be litigated again. The decision leaves intact the central claim that subscribers were harmed, but sends the calculation of what they are owed back to a lower court for a fresh jury.
A previous verdict in the case had awarded plaintiffs a payout of roughly $4.7 billion, a figure that made the dispute one of the most closely watched antitrust matters in sports broadcasting. The new trial means that amount is no longer settled, and the eventual award could rise, fall or stay the same.
The NFL responded that it was weighing its next steps. In a statement, the league said it was disappointed by the decision and was considering its options, a posture that suggests further legal challenges are possible before the retrial begins. The response reflects the league's broader position in a case that has now produced repeated rounds of litigation.
The lawsuit has run for years and has repeatedly tested how the league packages and sells games to fans outside their local markets. Sunday Ticket gives viewers access to games not broadcast in their home area, and it has been at the center of arguments over whether pricing was inflated by arrangements among the league and its partners. Plaintiffs contended that these arrangements allowed the package to be sold at higher prices than a competitive market would have supported.
The appellate ruling does not resolve the question of liability in a final sense, but it removes the figure that had defined the case's financial stakes. Because the earlier award was set aside for recalculation, both sides now face a trial focused narrowly on damages, with evidence about what subscribers actually paid and what a fairly priced product would have cost.
For subscribers, the immediate effect is that a final number for compensation remains undecided and may not be known for some time. For the NFL, the retrial extends a costly dispute over the economics of one of its most lucrative media products, at a time when the league continues to negotiate how its games reach audiences across television and streaming platforms. The outcome could influence how future out-of-market packages are priced and marketed, a question that matters to the league's media partners as well as to fans who buy the service each season.
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