Season ticket holder suing the Houston Astros

HOUSTON - A fan is now suing the Houston Astros after their sign-stealing scandal.

Season ticket holder Adam Wallach filed the class-action lawsuit on Friday. The lawsuit accuses the team of "deceptively overcharging" fans for season tickets.

It’s the first time a team in Major League Baseball has been punished this severely, but many people are feeling it’s not enough, hence this latest lawsuit.

We spoke with FOX 26’s senior legal analyst Chris Tritico for a breakdown on what a lawsuit like this means for the Astros.

“Under the Texas deceptive trade practices act, if it is certified as a class, everyone who is a season ticket holder or a partial season ticket holder might be, might be entitled to three times the amount of their season tickets for up to three or four years," said Tritico. "That could be a lot of money that the Astros might end up owing at the end of the day.”

The idea behind the suit is that fans were brought in, and spent lots of cash on a team they believed worked hard for their 2017 World Series title. It claims the organization was negligent and deceptive.

The suit seeks millions of dollars in compensation for full and partial season ticket holders from 2017-2020.

MORE: Ex-MLB pitcher sues Astros, claims cheating scandal altered career path: report

Tritico says it’s a novel theory, but it could hold.

“Not only under the Texas deceptive trade practices act do you get, can you get ... treble damages for a knowing violation, and this certainly is a knowing violation, but you’re also entitled to attorneys fees, and so these class actions can ... end up being a lot of money that someone like the Astros can end up paying at the end of the day.“

Tritico tells us it could be some time before the Astros would pay up.

“First, they will have to have a hearing to determine if the court is going to certify it as a class. Interestingly, that is immediately appealable, and so that could delay this case for a very, very long time.“

The scandal the Astros has found themselves in will soon spread to other teams.

“Major League Baseball is going to have to now start investigating all of the other teams that have been rumored to have been doing the exact same thing, and if these other teams come out, and MLB comes out and proves that other teams have been doing the same thing, they are all facing these exact same lawsuits. This could have a ripple effect over the entire league.“ says Tritico.

Wallach is asking for all season ticket holders to get money to cover the price increases over the last four seasons. He also wants the team to be prohibited from raising season ticket prices for at least two years.

MORE: Astros owner and players apologize for sign-stealing scandal