The Ninth Circuit has reinstated a jury’s antitrust liability verdict against the National Football League in the long-running Sunday Ticket litigation, while leaving intact the district court’s order for a new trial on damages.
DirecTV subscribers had alleged that agreements surrounding the out-of-market game package inflated prices in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. After a multi-billion-dollar verdict, the trial judge excluded the subscribers’ expert evidence and entered judgment as a matter of law for the NFL. The appellate panel held that the exclusion went beyond the court’s gatekeeping role under Federal Rule of Evidence 702: weaknesses open to cross-examination did not make the evidence inadmissible.
The ruling does not restore the damages award. The panel agreed that the jury’s damages method was improper, so the amount of any recovery must be tried again. Liability returns to the case, but the monetary result remains unsettled on remand.
The court’s October 30 opinion is available from the Ninth Circuit.
