Aug 1 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge in California on Thursday threw out a $4.7 billion verdict against the National Football League in a lawsuit claiming it overcharged subscribers to its Sunday Ticket game telecasts for more than a decade.
The ruling, opens new tab by Los Angeles-based U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez followed arguments by the NFL that the verdict was unjustified and the result of a “runaway” jury.
The NFL in a statement said it welcomed the judge’s ruling. “We believe that the NFL’s media distribution model provides our fans with an array of options to follow the game they love,” the NFL said.
Lawyers for the subscribers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This happens on occasion. Essentially, the plaintiff’s expert witnesses had flawed testimony about the actual financial damage done. The judge didn’t know this would happen until after they testified. The judge also said that the only issue was the dollar figure. In other words, the evidence of price fixing was conclusive enough.
I suppose this will go to new other jury trial, and the plaintiff’s will present better expert witness testimony. What will the new dollar amount end up at? We have no idea.