DRC Congratulates Client Susman Godfrey on $4.7 Billion Antitrust Victory Against NFL

DRC congratulates its clients Bill Carmody, Amanda Bonn, Marc Seltzer, Shawn Rabin, Seth Ard, Kalpana Srinivasan, Ian Gore, Tyler Finn, Eliza Finley and the entire Susman Godfrey team on its landmark antitrust victory against the National Football League and the thirty-two NFL teams on behalf of a class of subscribers to NFL Sunday Ticket, a television sports package formerly offered through DirecTV.  After three weeks of evidence and six hours of deliberations, the Central District of California jury found the NFL and the teams liable under the Sherman Act and awarded the Plaintiffs $4.7 billion, an amount that could be trebled to $14.1 billion. 

For decades, the NFL and its 32 teams have coordinated to sell the teams’ broadcasting rights. They sold the rights to Fox and CBS, which aired “in-market” games on Sunday afternoons, and to DirecTV, which sold a “Sunday Ticket” product that included all Sunday afternoon “out-of-market" games.  Fans who wanted to watch games outside their local market had to subscribe to DirecTV and spend about $250 to buy Sunday Ticket, which included all out-of-market games. Plaintiffs alleged that, due to several anticompetitive agreements, out-of-market games were restricted to Sunday Ticket, which was sold at a much higher price than it should have been in order to protect the viewership of the Fox and CBS in-market games. Defendants claimed that the arrangement was actually pro-competitive because it made games available for free on network television and protected the “competitive balance” of the NFL’s teams.  

DRC assisted the trial team with jury research, demonstrative aids, jury selection, and trial strategy consulting.