Panini vs Fanatics Lawsuit News: Rulings and NFLPA Arbitration

The Panini and Fanatics lawsuit is actually two federal lawsuits, filed days apart in August 2023 and now consolidated before the same judge in the Southern District of New York. Panini America accuses Fanatics of illegally monopolizing the sports trading card market through exclusive league licenses; Fanatics accuses Panini of fraud during failed buyout talks. As of mid-2026, both cases are deep in discovery, no trial date is set, and a resolution is likely years off.¹

How the Two Cases Started

Panini filed first, on August 3, 2023, in the Middle District of Florida. The case was later transferred to the Southern District of New York.² Four days after Panini sued, Fanatics filed its own suit.¹ The two actions proceed separately but in parallel before Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain.

The fight grew out of a rapid consolidation of the trading card industry. Between 2021 and 2022, Fanatics locked up exclusive card licenses with the NFL, NBA, and MLB and their players’ associations. The NFL and MLB deals each run 20 years; the NBA deal runs 10.³ Fanatics then bought Topps in 2022 for roughly $500 million.⁴ The leagues themselves became equity partners. The NFL alone led a $1.5 billion funding round in 2022 that included a $320 million stake in Fanatics.⁵

What Panini Alleges

Panini’s complaint invokes Sherman Act Sections 1 and 2 and Clayton Act Section 7, alleging unreasonable restraints of trade through long-term exclusive dealing, monopolization of the mass-market and premium card markets for MLB, NBA, and NFL cards, and acquisitions that substantially lessened competition. It also brings state-law claims for tortious interference, unfair competition, and commercial disparagement.⁶

The core theory is that Fanatics used its exclusive licenses and its league equity stakes to foreclose competition for decades. Panini contends that starting in 2026 Fanatics will hold dominant control of the relevant market for at least ten years, with the power to set prices and exclude rivals.¹ The complaint also accuses Fanatics of pressuring retailers to carry only its cards, threatening distributors, and signing star NFL and NBA players to exclusive autograph deals aimed at squeezing Panini out.⁶

The GC Packaging Piece

One of the sharpest allegations involves GC Packaging, a Texas printer that produced more than 90 percent of Panini’s cards. In 2022 Fanatics acquired a controlling stake in GCP in a deal valuing the company around $100 million.⁷ Panini says Fanatics then cut GCP’s machine allocation for Panini roughly in half, scaled back product releases, and gained access to Panini’s trade secrets. Panini attorney Stuart Singer has said the actions reduced Panini’s planned card supply by more than 100 million units.³ Fanatics says it invested in GCP to fix quality and security problems, and that total production capacity actually rose 33 percent, to 400 million packs per year.

What Panini Wants

Panini is asking the court to order Fanatics to divest its league licenses. It also seeks permanent injunctive relief, declaratory relief, and monetary damages.⁶

What Fanatics Alleges Back

Fanatics has called Panini’s antitrust claims “meritless” and described the suit as a “last-gasp, flailing effort” by a company that lost touch with consumers.⁵ Its countersuit alleges unfair trade practices and fraud during 2022 negotiations over an accelerated transfer of Panini’s licensing rights. That deal would have cost more than $2 billion, Fanatics says, but collapsed because Panini deliberately inflated its financial projections to extract an unreasonable price.³

Specifically, Fanatics claims Panini kept two sets of financial books: an internal set for operations and a rosier set of projections shown to Fanatics to justify a higher early-termination fee. During the 2022 talks, Panini projected combined EBITDA of about $790 million for 2023 and 2024. Panini’s own later sales presentation showed actual EBITDA of roughly $447 million in 2023 and $453 million in 2024, a combined shortfall of nearly 30 percent. Panini’s counsel denies the projections were falsified, arguing that Fanatics had full access to financial data during due diligence and that the shortfall stemmed from GCP’s reduced supply after the printer’s acquisition.³

What the Court Has Decided So Far

On March 10, 2025, Judge Swain partially granted and partially denied motions to dismiss from both sides, letting the core antitrust claims move forward. The court found Panini had adequately pleaded that Fanatics acquired monopoly power through anticompetitive means.⁸ Panini’s tortious interference claim tied to the GCP acquisition also survived dismissal, according to Panini’s counsel.³ With the motions resolved, both cases entered pretrial discovery.¹

The Fight Over Fanatics’ League Contracts

Discovery has been especially contentious over Fanatics’ licensing contracts with MLB, the NBA, the NFL, and their players’ associations. Panini says the deals are central to proving monopolization; Fanatics calls them trade secrets that would hand a direct competitor an unfair advantage.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo has ordered the contracts produced three times. In December 2024, she ordered production under an “attorneys’ eyes only” restriction, and Fanatics unsuccessfully appealed to Judge Swain. In May 2026, she ordered production again, and Fanatics turned over heavily redacted versions. In July 2026, after Panini objected to the redactions, she ordered the contracts produced in full and unredacted, still restricted to Panini’s outside counsel at Boies Schiller Flexner. The documents cover seven agreements with MLB, the MLBPA, the NFL, the NFLPA, the NBA, the NBPA, and NBA China.⁹¹⁰ Fanatics had until July 21, 2026, to appeal that final order to Judge Swain.

The Parallel NFLPA Arbitration

A related dispute has played out outside the federal courtroom. In August 2023, the NFL Players Association tried to terminate its contract with Panini mid-term, citing a substantial change in Panini’s executive management. Panini said it held exclusive rights through February 2026 and filed for arbitration on August 22, 2023.¹¹

Panini won. An arbitrator denied the NFLPA’s request for a temporary restraining order, allowed Panini to keep producing licensed goods, and ordered the NFLPA to pay a $7.8 million judgment. Panini had sought over $40 million, but a contract clause capped damages for “ancillary business losses.”¹² The stay kept Panini as the NFLPA’s card partner until the license transitioned to Fanatics in March 2026.¹³

A separate wrinkle: the NFLPA and Fanatics quietly settled their own arbitration in 2025 over Fanatics’ sale of individual NFL player cards while the union was trying to cancel Panini’s deal. Panini tried to obtain the settlement documents as evidence of alleged collusion. Magistrate Judge Figueredo denied the request, finding “no concrete basis” to conclude the settlement was the product of collusion and noting it had been negotiated through an independent mediator.¹²

The Consumer Class Action Is Not Part of This Case

A separate proposed class action filed in May 2025 by five collectors, Scaturo et al. v. Fanatics et al., accused Fanatics, the NFL, the NBA, MLB, and their players’ associations of conspiring to inflate card prices. Judge Swain dismissed it in 2026 for lack of standing. At the time of filing, Fanatics did not yet produce NBA- or NFL-licensed cards, so the plaintiffs could not have overpaid for them. For MLB cards, the plaintiffs failed to show that price differences between Topps products and Panini’s unlicensed alternatives resulted from anticompetitive conduct rather than production costs or quality. Judge Swain called the economic theory “entirely hypothetical.” The dismissal was without prejudice, and the plaintiffs were considering an amended complaint as of mid-2026.¹⁴¹⁵

A Credibility Problem for Panini

Panini faces a tension between what it tells the court and what it tells prospective buyers. In the litigation, Panini argues that any card company without at least one major league license is “eliminated as a competitor,” and it has described unlicensed cards as “low-quality” products collectors mockingly call “pajama cards.”³

Yet in a 90-page confidential sales document prepared for potential acquirers, Panini claimed it can “consistently develop appealing collections regardless of available and agreed licensing options” and boasted that its unofficial 1994 World Cup sticker album outsold the official product by 18 times.¹⁶ Legal observers have said that pitch could undermine Panini’s courtroom argument that it cannot survive without exclusive licenses. Panini’s attorney has maintained there is “nothing inconsistent” about exploring a sale while suing for damages, calling it an effort to mitigate losses.³

What Has Happened to Panini in the Meantime

Panini’s competitive position has eroded sharply since the suits were filed. Its NBA license transitioned to Topps on October 1, 2025, and its NFL license expired March 31, 2026, with Fanatics assuming full exclusive NFL licensing the next day.¹³

On May 7, 2026, FIFA announced it had awarded Fanatics an exclusive, long-term collectibles license covering trading cards, stickers, and trading card games for the World Cup and other FIFA events, effective 2031. The deal ends a nearly 60-year partnership between FIFA and Panini that began with the 1970 World Cup.¹⁷¹⁸ As part of the agreement, Fanatics committed to distributing more than $150 million in free collectibles to children globally over the life of the deal.¹⁹ Panini declined to comment on the loss.

Panini continues to produce cards, including unlicensed NFL and NBA products and international lines like its EuroLeague basketball series and 2026 Donruss Road to World Cup stickers.²⁰ The company engaged Citi in October 2025 to explore strategic options, including a possible sale, with reports estimating its valuation between €3 billion and €4 billion.²¹ As of December 2025, Panini’s attorney said no sale agreement or active negotiation was in place, and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin said his company has “no interest in buying Panini.”³

The Current Schedule

A May 2026 case management order adopted by Magistrate Judge Figueredo sets fact discovery, including depositions, to close by September 30, 2026. Expert discovery and dispositive motions are due by April 30, 2027.²²⁹¹²

1
Sportico. Fanatics Panini Cases Continue
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