After reviewing a decision by a New Jersey federal court tossing a man's lawsuit against the National Football League over its Super Bowl ticketing practices, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed the district judge's call and put the case back in play.

The three-judge panel—Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith, Judge Julio M. Fuentes and U.S. District Chief Judge Leonard P. Stark of the District of Delaware, sitting by designation—overturned the dismissal of plaintiff Josh Finkelman's putative class action against the NFL for lack of standing.

When Super Bowl XLVIII came to East Rutherford in 2014, 99 percent of tickets went to NFL teams and league insiders, according to Finkelman's suit, brought on behalf of people who bought tickets for more than face value. The remaining 1 percent of tickets are sold to the public, with purchasers determined by lottery. The suit claimed violations of New Jersey's Ticket Law, which bars the withholding of more than 5 percent of available seating for an event.

Finkelman bought two tickets on the resale market for $2,000 each, far in excess of the named price of $800 each. His case was dismissed and his first attempt to revive it at the Third Circuit failed. He filed an amended complaint, which was again tossed, but this time, Fuentes said Finkelman had demonstrated standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Additionally, he showed in his amended allegations that the NFL's withholding of tickets drove up prices in the secondary market, according to Fuentes.

“Finkelman did not just allege that prices would be lower on the secondary market were it not for the NFL's withholding,” Fuentes said in the panel's opinion. “Instead, Finkelman alleged a causal chain justifying why the NFL's withholding set into motion a series of events that ultimately raised prices on the secondary market.”

He added, “Specifically, Finkelman alleged that the insiders to whom the NFL presently provides tickets are more likely to resell those tickets through third-party brokers to keep those sales anonymous, and those brokers in turn are more likely to charge higher prices. But if more tickets were made available to fans initially, fans would be more likely than the NFL insiders are to sell through direct fan-to-fan sales, and the prices would likely be lower.”

Fuentes also said that Finkelman offered economic facts that are “specific, plausible and susceptible to proof at trial.”

Bruce Nagel of Nagel Rice in Roseland, who represented the plaintiff and the putative class, said in an email Friday, “We are thrilled with the opinion and the NFL is now facing hundreds of millions in damages for their admitted withholding of Super Bowl tickets, which violated New Jersey law.”

Jonathan Pressment of Haynes and Boone in New York represented the NFL. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.