Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: DirecTV “NFL Sunday Ticket” agreement restrains trade, pub claims, (Aug 24, 2015)

By Greg Hammond, J.D.

A Pennsylvania pub has filed a class action complaint against DirecTV, LLC and National Football League, Inc., claiming that the companies’ exclusive “NFL Sunday Ticket” agreement restrains trade in violation of the Sherman Act. Similar complaints have previously been filed by Gael Pub, The Mucky Duck, and individual consumers Mario Aliano and Thomas Abrahamian (Main Street America Ltd. v. National Football League, Inc., August 21, 2015).

Main Street America Ltd., doing business as The Great American Pub, claims that through an exclusive agreement with the NFL, DirecTV is the sole distributor of live game feeds for the live broadcast of Sunday afternoon “out of market” NFL games through DirecTV’s “NFL Sunday Ticket” service. This exclusive deal, according to Main Street, allows DirecTV to charge supracompetitive prices for NFL Sunday Ticket. In addition, Main Street claims 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 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.

DirecTV and the NFL, according to Main Street, have engaged in a continuing agreement to restrain horizontal competition and trade in the distribution of live NFL games, amounting to a per se and rule of reason violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. In addition, Main Street claims DirecTV and the NFL have violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by abusing their monopoly power over the creation, licensing, and distribution of live NFL football broadcasts for the purposes of unreasonably excluding and/or limiting competition.

Main Street seeks trebled damages, attorney fees, costs, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, as well as injunctive relief.

The case is No. 2:15-cv-06402.

Attorneys: Lionel Z. Glancy (Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP), Eugene A. Spector (Spector Roseman Kodroff & Willis, P.C.), and David P. McLafferty for Main Street America Ltd.

Companies: Main Street America Ltd.; National Football League, Inc.

News: Antitrust