A judge in the Southern District of New York has thrown out the antitrust lawsuit that DirecTV filed against Nexstar a year ago.
The decision stated that DirecTV's harm is too indirect and uncertain to prove antitrust standing.
Also, the ruling said the court chooses not to handle Plaintiff’s remaining state law claims and dismisses them without prejudice.
DirecTV accused Nexstar — the largest TV station operator in the US — of conspiring with Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting to set prices higher than the market rate for retransmission consent fees. This led to higher charges for DirecTV in areas where Nexstar and one of the other companies overlap.
However, DirecTV did not renew agreements with Mission and White Knight when they expired in 2022 due to a pricing dispute. This caused blackouts for customers in their areas. Since DirecTV did not make any agreement that required them to pay the allegedly inflated fees, their losses from the blackouts can be attributed to their decision to leave the market.
In a statement to media outlets, DirecTV said, “This ruling creates a worrying precedent that a victim of price-fixing must pay the inflated price before making a claim in court.” According to Variety, the company might file an appeal.
NexStar stated, “We’ll let the court’s decision speak for itself.”
