Appeals court orders new trial to determine damages for NFL overcharging ‘Sunday Ticket' subscribers

Google Street View of the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco. (Google Street View) Hope remains for the Mucky Duck.Eleven years after the San Francisco sports bar began a lawsuit accusing the NFL of overcharging "Sunday Ticket" subscribers, a federal appeals court revived the jury's finding that the league was liable. The San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial to determine damages, throwing away the original $4.7 billion award.This all began when consumers argued that the NFL and DirecTV, the league's exclusive distributor of out-of-market games, overcharged subscribers to watch games through Sunday Ticket. Bars and other businesses, such as the Mucky Duck, also bought the package to show out-of-market games.In 2024, a Los Angeles federal jury found the NFL liable for $4.6 billion in damages to residential ‌subscribers ⁠and $96.9 million for commercial subscribers. But a district judge later set aside the jury's decision after excluding the subscribers' expert testimony for being "unfounded and unreliable."On Friday, the court of appeals ruled that the district court "abused its discretion" by excluding that testimony. But it upheld the order for a new damages trial because the jury's award was "not based on a proper consideration of the evidence," but instead based on "speculation or guesswork.""We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy - which features 100 percent of NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL Plus - is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment," the NFL wrote Friday in a statement, according to Sportico.SubscribeThere’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Appeals court orders new trial to determine damages for NFL overcharging ‘Sunday Ticket' subscribers.