Appellate Court Revives ‘Sunday Ticket’ Antitrust Verdict Against the NFL

7 min read

The NFL’s victory in court had looked decisive: a judge erased a $4.7 billion jury award and ended the subscribers’ case. The Ninth Circuit has now restored the liability verdict—but its ruling leaves the league’s most important financial question for another jury.

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The popular take is only half right

The easy headline is that the NFL has lost a $4.7 billion case again. That is not what the Ninth Circuit decided on October 30. The court ordered the district court to restore the jury’s liability verdict, but affirmed a separate ruling that the damages must be tried again. The league faces a renewed finding of liability, not an immediate $4.7 billion judgment.

That distinction matters. The appellate panel did not decide the correct price for Sunday Ticket, nor did it conclude that the subscribers’ damages estimates were right. It decided that the trial judge improperly kept expert testimony from the jury—and that the original jury’s damages calculation was not supported by the evidence. Liability is back; the amount remains open.