FOX Business’ Madison Alworth reports live from Fanatics Fest in New York, highlighting the massive gathering of sports fans and athletes.
As Fanatics continues to grow, the global sports giant has faced numerous lawsuits in recent years.
The company sees them as opportunistic and baseless pursuits to shake it up to some extent, and Fanatics hasn’t given up. There were fights.
And win.
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Fanatics Founder and CEO Michael Rubin walks the field before a game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on September 20, 2026 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Kathryn Riley/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Over the past 12 months, Fanatics has seen seven lawsuits dismissed across its entire business, which includes its collectible merchandise and guns.
“As we innovate and grow, Fanatics has become the target of opportunistic and baseless lawsuits. We will not be shaken and will expend every resource necessary to defend the company and continue to beat down these baseless claims one by one. Our goal remains to deliver the best possible experiences to fans and collectors around the world,” a Fanatics spokesperson told Fox Business in an exclusive statement.
The company’s latest firing Tuesday comes amid another claim on the collectibles side after plaintiffs said Fanatics’ exclusive licensing and relationships with professional sports leagues and players’ associations reduced competition in the trading card space and forced consumers to pay more for products.
FEDERAL JUDGE DISMISSES LAWSUIT OVER FANATICS AND PRO SPORTS LEAGUES MONOPOLIZE THE TRADING CARD INDUSTRY
A similar case was dismissed in March, when five plaintiffs – Robert Scaturo, Scott Bubnick, Joseph Davidov, Steven Mardakhaev and Jonathan Madar – accused Fanatics of conspiring to monopolize the ever-growing trading card market and, as a result, raising the price of cards.
The court granted Fanatics’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit after Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain ruled that “none of the named plaintiffs adequately allege that they have overpaid or will soon overpay for the trading cards sold by defendants.”
This new dismissal, however, constitutes a much broader and more coordinated challenge to the fanatics than the Scaturo affair.
The Jones case consolidated several indirect purchaser actions, naming 18 plaintiffs and numerous corporate plaintiffs, while asserting 13 federal and state antitrust, consumer protection and unjust enrichment claims, according to court documents obtained by Fox Business.
An indirect buyer would mean a consumer purchases trading cards from a third party, such as a hobby store or card sales entity, rather than going directly through Fanatics.
Tom Brady attends Fanatics and Topps’ Hobby Rip Night event with Michael Rubin Kevin Hart and Travis Scott on September 30, 2023 in Linwood, NJ (Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images/Getty Images)
The consolidated complaint presented the plaintiffs’ coordinated effort to bring together their strongest allegations, different from the Scaturo case and perhaps harder to dismiss, but it still didn’t make sense in the eyes of Swain, who also presided over that case.
In terms of collectibles, rival company Panini continues to wage its own lawsuit against Fanatics, accusing it of anti-competitive behavior and monopolization of the sports card industry. This happened after Fanatics acquired the exclusive licensing rights to the NBA and NFL, which were previously held by Panini. After April 2026, Fanatics will have exclusive licenses for the NBA, NFL, MLB, Premier League, F1 and WWE.
The Jones decision could weaken Panini’s broader narrative of market damage because it is the second case in which consumers have attempted to turn Panini’s allegations into their own lawsuit against Fanatics. The Jones lawsuit also marks the second consumer case dismissed before discovery.
Fanatics denied Panini’s claims and filed a countersuit, alleging its competitor engaged in a “prolonged, illegal and deceptive campaign of unfair trade practices, strong-arm tactics and tortious misconduct” in an attempt to force Fanatics to pay a considerable sum to have Panini terminate its licenses in 2022.
Bryce Miller, 10, holds a stack of sports cards he obtained at the Panini Group booth during the 45th National Sports Collectors Convention at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois, July 31, 2025. (Audrey Richardson for The Washington Post/Getty Images)
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As for other lawsuit dismissals, Fanatics saw the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismiss two separate class action lawsuits in antitrust claims, claiming that Fanatics and the NFL unlawfully restricted the distribution of NFL-sanctioned products.
In the lawsuit filed by Casey’s Distributing, Inc., the court dismissed the complaint for the second time, finding that the plaintiff failed to invoke antitrust status because the NFL, as owner of the brand, could choose which retailers could sell its products.
Casey’s did not allege that consumers paid higher prices in this case, according to court documents obtained by Fox Business.
Gn bussni
