SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A jury has ordered the National Football League to pay $4.7 billion in damages to subscribers of NFL Sunday Ticket. This comes from a lawsuit claiming the NFL violated anti-trust laws with its subscription service. The main plaintiff in the case is Mucky Duck bar in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset neighborhood.
“I think it is encouraging for small business owners that you can take a fight to major corporations” said Robert Freund, an e-commerce lawyer. “It can be done and this is a major victory for small businesses and consumers.”
Owners of Mucky Duck filed the lawsuit almost a decade ago claiming the league violated anti-trust laws by bundling all out-of-market games. The subscription service has also only been available through one provider, and the lawsuit claims the NFL inflated the price.
“No other major sports league in America has such a drastic, total elimination of competition in the broadcasting of its games,” the lawsuit claimed.
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The case was dismissed in 2017, but it was reinstated as a class action lawsuit in 2019 consisting of bars and home subscribers from June of 2011 to February of 2023. The verdict came in Los Angeles in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California.
“The deal that NFL Sunday Ticket and the NFL had, always struck me as unfair,” Freund said. “The prices are just thrust upon them. Here is the deal – take it or leave it, that is really exactly the reason why anti-trust laws exist.”
Now, bars in San Francisco are applauding the efforts of Mucky Duck.
“It represents the Inner Sunset, it represents San Francisco,” said Noah Roberts, a bartender at Little Shamrock, near Mucky Duck.
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Roberts says the price of Sunday Ticket was never easy for bars to afford.
“You want to have every game on, and then one league charges and insane amount of money,” he said. “Your hands are tied because you have to put the game on, and then you’re losing money, so what do you do? Do you lose the fans? Do you not sell beer? What do you do?”
NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones testified at this trial. The league plans to appeal this verdict.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement. “We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
The owner of Mucky Duck declined to comment due the pending appeal from the NFL.
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