Catch up on the essentials
- Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that the NFL remains liable for violating antitrust law through its Sunday Ticket practices.
- The Ninth Circuit said the testimony was not unfounded or unreliable merely because it could be impeached.
- Although the panel restored the liability verdict, it upheld the order for a new trial on damages.
Selected from this article · 2026-10-30
Read on for the full pictureNFL remains liable in Sunday Ticket antitrust case
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that the NFL remains liable for violating antitrust law through its Sunday Ticket practices. The court reinstated a jury verdict favoring a class of DirecTV subscribers but left the amount of damages for a new trial.
The ruling does not establish that the NFL currently owes $4.7 billion. That figure was the original damages award, which remains subject to the ordered retrial.
Appeals court reversed the NFL’s liability judgment
The appeals court reversed the district court’s judgment as a matter of law for the league. It also held that the district court abused its discretion by excluding the subscribers’ expert testimony, finding that the opinions were neither unfounded nor unreliable merely because they could be impeached.
The Ninth Circuit said the testimony was not unfounded or unreliable merely because it could be impeached. It found that the district court went beyond its role in evaluating the experts’ methods and the sufficiency of their data, according to the ruling as reported.
Damages must be reconsidered
Although the panel restored the liability verdict, it upheld the order for a new trial on damages. The district court had concluded that the jury’s calculation was not based on proper consideration of the evidence, and the appeals court found no abuse of discretion in that determination.
The case concerns claims that NFL anticompetitive agreements caused DirecTV subscribers to pay inflated prices for Sunday Ticket, a bundled package of NFL game telecasts. The original trial in 2024 produced a $4.7 billion verdict, which the lower court later overturned.
Financial exposure remains unresolved
The decision keeps the NFL’s antitrust liability in place but sends the damages calculation back for a new trial. It therefore leaves both the proper methodology for calculating subscriber losses and the ultimate award to be determined in a new proceeding.
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