A federal appeals court ordered a new trial in the class-action lawsuit against the NFL to determine how much the league must pay in financial damages to affected subscribers of its Sunday Ticket out-of-market games package, who said they were overcharged by the NFL and its partners for the service.

On Friday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a district court judge erred in tossing the verdict against the NFL following a 2024 trial, after a jury found the NFL had violated antitrust law with the Sunday Ticket package (previously offered through DirecTV). The appeals court said the judge correctly threw out the $4.7 billion award, but said consumers who sued the league are entitled to a new trial to determine financial penalties. The case now goes back to district court.

“The jury clearly awarded damages based on its improper consideration of the evidence rather than according to the district court’s instructions,” the appeals court said in the ruling. “This warrants a new trial on damages.”

In a statement, an NFL spokesperson said: “We are disappointed by today’s decision in the NFL Sunday Ticket appeal, the latest development in this case which has been ongoing now for over 11 years. We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy — which features 100% 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 rep added, “We appreciate the panel’s attention to this case, and we will be considering our options for seeking further appellate review of today’s decision.”

In June 2024, a federal jury in Los Angeles ordered the NFL to pay $4.7 billion in damages after finding the league conspired with DirecTV and network partners to increase the price of the exclusive Sunday Ticket games package.

But Judge Philip Gutierrez of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California threw out the jury’s damages award, writing that the “verdict is clearly not supported by the evidence and must be vacated” because the $4.7 billion figure was based on “guesswork or speculation.” Gutierrez had ruled that testimony from expert witness Daniel Rascher was inadmissible because Rascher had said speculated about what individual NFL teams could earn if they sold rights to out-of-market game separately, in the way college sports conferences and teams do. The appeals court found that the jury should have been allowed to consider Rascher’s testimony.

The class-action lawsuit, originally filed in 2015, represented more than 2.4 million residential subscribers and more than 48,000 restaurants, bars and other commercial establishments that purchased NFL Sunday Ticket when it was still distributed by DirecTV.

Until the 2023-24 NFL season, DirecTV had been the distribution partner for Sunday Ticket since 1994. DirecTV lost its hold on Sunday Ticket for consumers when Google secured a seven-year deal with the NFL to sell the package via YouTube. Currently, Sunday Ticket includes all out-of-market Sunday regular-season NFL games that are broadcast on Fox and CBS.

The trial revealed that Disney’s ESPN had offered to acquire Sunday Ticket rights from the NFL starting with the 2023-24 season that would have priced the package at $70 per season to watch all Sunday out-of-market games for single teams — but that the league would not agree to the plan.

For the 2026 season, Sunday Ticket for new subscribers with a YouTube TV plan cost $240 and whie for returning customers it cost $378. NFL Sunday Ticket through YouTube (without YouTube) cost $240 for new customers and $480 for returning subscribers.