The Supreme Court of the United States Monday rejected an appeal by the NFL and DirectTV to avoid a class action lawsuit.

The appeal stemmed from a case where the plaintiffs, Ninth Inning Inc., “challenged the National Football League’s contract with DirecTV for the television rights to out-of-market games.” The District Court dismissed the plaintiff’s suit, but the Court of Appeals reversed, stating “that the plaintiffs’ complaint sufficiently alleged that the contract may be illegal under the antitrust laws.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote “separately simply to explain that the denial of certiorari should not necessarily be viewed as agreement with the legal analysis of the Court of Appeals,” said that “under the existing contract, the 32 NFL teams have authorized the NFL to sell the television rights for out-of-market games to a single buyer, DirecTV. The plaintiffs argue, and the Court of Appeals agreed, that antitrust law may require each team to negotiate an individualized contract for televising only its own games. But that conclusion appears to be in substantial tension with antitrust principles and precedents.”

Kavanaugh continued, explaining that “In sum, the defendants—the NFL, its teams, and DirecTV—have substantial arguments on the law. If the defendants do not prevail at summary judgment or at trial, they may raise those legal arguments again in a new petition for certiorari, as appropriate.”

The denial of writ of certiorari by the Supreme Court means that the lawsuit can proceed, which potentially means there could be a settlement to reimburse subscribers.