NFL $6 BILLION ‘price-fixing’ lawsuit: Judge is considering ordering Google to disclose details of Sunday Ticket media rights deal as plaintiffs allege the league is artificially inflating fees
- The plaintiffs asked a judge to force Google to respond to a request for the information
- Google is not a party in the long-running antitrust lawsuit, which is due to go to trial in 2024
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Google has faced a lawsuit in US federal court over information about its billion-dollar deal with the NFL, which retains exclusive broadcasting rights to the “Sunday Ticket” package for televised professional games.
Attorneys representing Sunday Ticket consumer and commercial subscribers filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in San Jose, California.
They have asked a judge to force Google to respond to a discovery request in the plaintiffs’ case against the NFL and DirecTV, with Google taking over as the host of Sunday Ticket.
The plaintiffs are seeking $6 billion in damages for their allegations that the NFL, its teams and DirecTV conspired to limit the availability of televised games, which artificially inflated the price of Sunday Ticket. The programming features out-of-print Sunday afternoon games not otherwise available free of charge on certain national channels.
Google is not a party in the long-running antitrust lawsuit that is due to go to court early next year.
The NFL has denied price-fixing allegations in the ongoing class action lawsuit
However, plaintiffs’ attorneys allege in their subpoena complaint that the tech giant wrongly withheld information that could be used to pursue claims against the NFL and DirecTV.
Google and NFL officials declined to comment Tuesday.
The NFL has denied the plaintiffs’ price fixing, saying the league’s exclusive distribution agreement was “presumably legal.”
They also said the plaintiffs — after making dozens of testimonies and disclosing hundreds of thousands of records — failed to “find any evidence that could turn a lawful exclusive distribution agreement into an unlawful cartel conspiracy.”
The plaintiffs are seeking information from Google, including retail prices, rights fees and subscriber numbers. The attorneys said they wanted to learn more about the NFL’s “impact” on Google.
Google’s lawyers said providing the requested information was “unreasonably burdensome”.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The NFL Sunday Ticket will be available via subscription on Google’s YouTube platform from the upcoming NFL season through 2030.
The plaintiffs are seeking information from Google, including retail prices and rights fees
The plaintiffs’ attorneys said in their lawsuit that after “multiple discussions” Google only agreed to provide three documents — so-called “summary presentations” — about its Sunday ticket deal with the NFL.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys said the information “does not even scratch the surface” of relevant information in the litigation.
“Evidence that the NFL imposed restrictions on Google will support plaintiffs’ allegations that the NFL imposed the same restrictions on DirecTV to the detriment of consumers during the class action,” plaintiffs’ attorneys said in their subpoena complaint.
The case is Ninth Inning Inc dba The Mucky Duck v. Google LLC, United States District Court, Northern District of California, 5:23-mc-80213-NC.