New class-action lawsuit filed against NFL, DirecTV

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against American football’s NFL and pay-television operator DirecTV by antitrust attorney Michael Hausfeld and colleagues at the Hausfeld law company.

Hausfeld is seeking to represent a class of “commercial subscribers” such as bars and restaurants that access DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket package of out-of-market NFL games.

Currently such premises have to go through DirecTV to show the games, with the lawsuit claiming that larger establishments like Las Vegas hotels are charged more than $120,000 (€110,000) per year.

“But for the NFL teams’ agreement in which DirecTV has joined, teams would compete against each other in the market for NFL football programming, which would likely induce more competitive pricing,” the complaint said. “Of the four major professional sports in this country – baseball, basketball, hockey, and football – the only one with an exclusive out of market broadcasting arrangement is the NFL/DirecTV Sunday Ticket.”

Last month, lawyers representing NFL fans filed their own class-action lawsuit over Sunday Ticket.