The U.S. Justice Department filed an friend-of-the-court briefing earlier this week, asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate DirecTV’s antitrust suit against Nexstar Media Group and two smaller station groups.
Also read: DirecTV To Appeal Judge’s Decision To Toss Its Nexstar Antitrust Case
DirecTV accused Nexstar of conspiring to fix broadcast retransmission license fees through management services agreements with smaller station groups Mission Broadcasting and White Knight.
Back on March 20, U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York dismissed DirecTV's case. He ruled that any financial injury DirecTV suffered as a result wasn't caused by any price-fixing conducted by Nexstar, Mission or White Knight. Rather, damages resulted from DirecTV’s decision not to do business, starting in 2022, with Mission and White Knight stations … with the subsequent loss of programming causing DirecTV customers to unsubscribe.
The DOJ believes Castel applied the wrong legal framework here, and it has asked the court overseeing DirecTV's appeal to “correct the district court’s erroneous holding in its antitrust-standing analysis that the sole type of injury for which a private consumer plaintiff can recover in a price-fixing case is the payment of supracompetitive prices.
“The harms from a price-fixing conspiracy are not so limited,” the DOJ added. “Price fixing corrupts the competitive process, and that anticompetitive harm can result in various antitrust injuries, such as reduced output and decreased quality, in addition to increased prices.”
DirecTV has accused of turning the smaller Mission and White Knight into "sidecars," negotiating retransmission consent for their 27 stations in 25 designated marketing areas in which Nexstar already manages duopolies.
