A Federal Judge, the Honorable Philip S. Gutierrez, upon further review, has overturned a $4.7 billion dollar verdict awarded to the Plaintiff in a class action lawsuit involving the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, which could have blossomed into a $15 billion dollar verdict because antitrust damages can be trippeled.

According to Federal Judge Gutierrez the jury did not follow his instructions, and court testimony from two experts, Dr. Daniel Rascher an economist at the University of San Francisco, and Dr. John Zona, was in error. Judge Gutierrez claims their testimony should not have been allowed. Thus, he has granted the NFL a new trial.

After the trial the jury used a formula to award damages that was not in accordance with Federal Judge Gutierrez’s instructions. They used a formula that was not tied to the record. During the trial, Daniel Rascher used a college football analogy to exhibit how the NFL game viewing package would operate if the current Sunday Ticket operation did not exist. However, Federal Judge Gutierrez reasoned Dr Rascher had not explained, during his testimony, how out of market games would have been produced without an additional subscription. Also, Dr. John Zona’s testimony did not account for the fact that additional distributors may not have been available to broadcast the Sunday Ticket item outside of Direct TV, which once had the Sunday Ticket viewing package. The Sunday Ticket is now viewed on youtube.com.

Federal Judge Gutierrez concluded that if Dr Rascher and Dr. Zona’s testimony had not been included in the trial, no jury would have come to the same conclusion as this present jury had decided, and damages would have never been awarded. Therefore, The verdict was overturned.