Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST—C.D. Cal.: Lead counsel in NFL Sunday Ticket suit appointed, (May 24, 2016)

By Linda O’Brien, J.D., LL.M.

The federal district court in Los Angeles has appointed the law firms of Susman Godfrey L.L.P., Robins Kaplan LLP, Langer, Grogan & Diver L.L.P., and Hausfeld LLP as co-lead counsel in the consolidated residential and commercial actions concerning alleged anticompetitive agreements between the National Football League, Inc. (NFL) and DirecTV, LLC that provided DirecTV with exclusive live broadcast rights of certain NFL Sunday afternoon football games outside of viewers’ local television markets (In re National Football League’s Sunday Ticket Antitrust Litigation, May 23, 2016, O’Connell, B.).

A number of residential and commercial subscribers to DirecTV’s sports package “NFL Sunday Ticket” filed a series of class action suits, alleging that the exclusive deal between the NFL and DirecTV allows DirecTV to charge supracompetitive prices for NFL Sunday Ticket. In addition, the subscribers claimed that, but for the exclusive agreement, teams would compete against each other in the market for NFL football programming; prices for the live broadcast of out of market Sunday afternoon NFL games would be much lower; the cost of DirecTV programming packages required to be purchased in conjunction with the NFL Sunday Ticket would be lower; and other multi-channel video programming distribution competitors such as Comcast, Time Warner, and Cox would be willing to compete for consumers of these games. In December 2015, the suits were centralized in the Central District of California by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

The firms of Susman Godfrey L.L.P., Robins Kaplan LLP, Langer, Grogan & Diver L.L.P., and Hausfeld LLP filed applications to act as co-lead counsel for the residential consumer and commercial establishment plaintiffs who would supervise, direct, and oversee the management of the litigation. Additionally, the firms of Cohen Milstein L.L.P. and Murray Law Firm sought appointment to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC).

The court found that the proposed firms would fairly and adequately represent the interests of the putative classes. The Susman, Langer, and Cohen firms had extensive experience leading and obtaining successful outcomes in complex, nationwide class actions and represented their willingness to devote the necessary resources to litigation the case. Additionally, Langer and Cohen have pursued similar actions against the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball and acquired a thorough understanding of the sports broadcasting industry.

Hausfeld and Robins filed the first and third actions, respectively, on behalf of commercial establishments and have investigated the facts and developed the original legal theory of the case. Both firms have successfully represented plaintiffs in antitrust class actions. Murray, the court noted, has more than 20 years of experience representing plaintiffs in complex actions and has provided court-appointed counsel in numerous multi-district and other complex cases.

The case is No. 2:15-ml-02668-BRO-JEM.

Attorneys: Arun S. Subramanian (Susman Godfrey LLP) for 8812 Tavern Corp. Melissa D. Ingalls (Kirkland & Ellis LLP) for DirecTV, LLC, DirecTV Sports Networks, LLC, and DirecTV Holdings LLC.

Companies: 8812 Tavern Corp.; DirecTV, LLC; DirecTV Holdings LLC; DirecTV Sports Networks LLC

Cases: Antitrust CaliforniaNews