A recent antitrust lawsuit against the NFL may leave the league’s 32 teams, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, on the hook for a hefty bill.
On Thursday, a federal jury in Los Angeles ruled against the NFL in a case that centered around the league’s “Sunday Ticket” package which allows football fans to watch out-of-market games across the country.
The jury determined that the NFL owed subscribers nearly $5 billion in damages, including roughly $96 million to bars and restaurants that subscribed to Sunday Ticket and $4.6 billion to its 2.4 million individual subscribers. According to federal law, plaintiffs in such an antitrust case can receive as much as triple the damages they are determined to have suffered, meaning should the ruling stand, it’s possible that the league has a tab of $14 billion that needs to be settled.
Split evenly amongst the the 32 teams in the NFL, the bill could total nearly $450 million per team.
The NFL plans on appealing the case.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the N.F.L. 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.”
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