$50M Disney Settlement to End Litigation Over Alleged Antitrust Violations Linked to Live Streaming Prices

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The Walt Disney Company is set to pay $50 million to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged the media giant effectively doubled the price of live streaming services such as YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream by forcing them to include ESPN sports channels, in violation of federal antitrust laws.

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The $50 million proposed Walt Disney Company settlement was filed by the plaintiffs on March 5, 2026 and awaits preliminary approval from the court. If approved, the Disney settlement would cover:

• All individuals who purchased a YouTube TV subscription at any time from April 1, 2019 to the date the settlement receives preliminary approval (the YouTube TV settlement class); and
• All individuals who purchased a DirecTV streaming live pay TV subscription (branded at various times as, at least, DirecTV Stream, DirecTV Now and AT&T TV Now) at any time from April 1, 2019 through the date of preliminary approval (the DirecTV Stream settlement class).

If approved by the court, the Disney class action settlement will provide injunctive relief and monetary benefits to consumers who were allegedly overcharged for YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream. Per court documents, a monetary distribution plan has yet to be determined, but the amount of each person’s valid claim will be determined based on where they lived (given the differences in state laws) and how long they subscribed to each service.

Per court documents, Disney settlement class members will have the option to file a claim form online or by mail and may receive their payout via electronic payment or check.

ClassAction.org will update this page when the Disney settlement website is live, with information on how class members may submit a claim form.

The proposed settlement agreement stipulates that Disney must also implement certain business practice changes for a period of three years. In particular, during carriage agreement negotiations, Disney will consider proposals from streaming live pay TV (SLPTV) providers—i.e., those who provide live television streamed over the internet to subscribers—to offer subscriptions that do not include every Disney network, such as pricier channels like ESPN, court documents relay.

Additionally, Disney has agreed to uphold “information walls” to prevent confidential information from carriage negotiations from being shared between negotiators for its linear networks, such as ESPN, and its SLPTV providers, such as Hulu + Live TV.

If the proposed settlement receives preliminary approval, the court will determine whether to grant final approval following a hearing at a later date.  

The Walt Disney Company class action lawsuit claimed that  Disney’s anticompetitive carriage agreements with SLPTV providers, including YouTube TV and DirecTV, violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, as they required providers to include ESPN in their lowest-priced packages and contained a “most-favored-nation clause” that essentially assured Disney that any price increases caused by ESPN rates would not be undercut by other providers.

The filing contended that Disney used ESPN and Hulu, which it acquired in 2019, to create a “price floor” in the market and artificially inflate the costs of other streaming services by raising the prices of its own products, to the detriment of consumers.  

Did you know that some class action settlements require no proof to submit a claim? Check out the latest open class action settlements.