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The Sunday Ticket case might be the last major one for the judge who threw out an enormous judgment against the NFL.
Philip Gutierrez, who made headlines this week when he tossed the $4.7 billion jury verdict against the league, is set to retire in just two months.
“On October 15, 2024, I intend to retire from regular active service,” Gutierrez wrote to President Joe Biden in a January letter, according to Law360. “It is my intention to continue to render substantial judicial service as a senior judge.”
In the Sunday Ticket case, Gutierrez had signaled his skepticism of how the plaintiffs handled the case, but his decision Thursday to toss the verdict entirely was still a surprise.
The plaintiffs, all subscribers to the NFL’s out-of-market broadcast package that required customers to buy a bundle of games in order to watch them, claimed that the NFL violated antitrust law with Sunday Ticket’s pricing. Given the case’s antitrust status, had Gutierrez upheld the verdict, the damages would have been tripled, increasing the NFL’s bill to more than $14 billion. That’s more than the league brings in annually in broadcast revenue.
The jury reached its verdict in June in favor of the plaintiffs, and the NFL pledged to appeal. In his decision to overturn the case, Gutierrez came down hard on the plaintiffs and their key witnesses.
“The Court agrees that Dr. Rascher’s and Dr. Zona’s testimonies based on their flawed methodologies should be excluded. And because there was no other support for the class-wide injury and damages elements of Plaintiffs’ … claims, judgment as a matter of law for the Defendants is appropriate,” the filing said.
Gutierrez was appointed to the bench by former President George W. Bush in 2007 and was previously a judge for the state’s superior court in Los Angeles County.
