LOS ANGELES — NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers’ attorney Amanda Bonn told a California jury on Thursday that secret documents will reveal the NFL’s anticompetitive behavior, costing subscribers $7 billion. During the opening statements of the multibillion-dollar antitrust suit, Bonn promised that the trial would expose the “darker side of the NFL behind the shield.”
NFL Ticket Pricing Lawsuit
Representing two classes of subscribers, Bonn argued that “never-before-seen” documents would show the NFL’s deliberate actions to keep Sunday Ticket package prices high to protect lucrative deals with CBS and Fox. These deals ensured low subscriber numbers for the Sunday Ticket package offered by DirecTV from 2011 to 2022.
In December 2002, top NFL executives and attorneys met in New York to renegotiate with DirecTV. According to Bonn, a key document discussed at the meeting, marked “antitrust” in the margin, indicated the NFL’s awareness that controlling DirecTV’s pricing could be illegal. Despite this, the NFL allegedly maintained control through covert agreements.
