In less than a week, at the beginning of August, two complaints were filed in quick succession by two major players in North American sports derivative products, the famous market for player cards sending us back to our childhood. The first is Panini America, which is suing rival Fanatics for violating US antitrust law in federal court in Tampa, Florida. The second is a mirror response from Fanatics, which is suing Panini for unfair competition in federal court in Manhattan. At stake, an extremely lucrative market since American specialists estimate that the value of these cards bearing the image of the players of the very powerful North American professional leagues of US football (NFL) and basketball (NBA) will exceed 60 billion dollars. in 2027.
Basically, the two companies accuse each other of pretty much the same thing. Older on the market, Panini is the current rights holder. Since 2009 for the NBA and 2016 for the NFL, under long-term contracts which will expire in 2025 and 2026 respectively. Fanatics has signed with the NFL (for twenty years), the NBA and their associations of players to take over. Fanatics only entered the market for these cards in 2021, winning exclusive rights to MLB, the baseball league.
Fanatics, which landed on the market in 2021, will succeed Panini for twenty years. (Fanatics)
But last year, the company made a leap when it acquired for 500 million dollars the Topps company, sixty years of existence in sports-related products and holder of the burgeoning rights in the United States to the trading cards of the MLS (the football league), Formula 1 and UEFA. Panini therefore accuses Fanatics of having “created an entirely new monopoly covering multiple leagues and associations of players”, and denounces its “anti-competitive methods” with exclusive long-term contracts and “insurmountable barriers to entry” into this walk.
Panini claims to have learned of the signature of these deals in the press and regrets not having been able to apply. At Fanatics, we answer that we tried to win these new contracts because those of Panini were coming to an end, that an agreement in principle existed for these licenses to expire from 2022, but also that Panini had in fact never responded to a call for tenders since having acquired these rights by buying Donruss Play in 2009, then holder of long-term contracts themselves. In short, Panini would be a bad player and would pay for its incompetence in satisfying and keeping its customers. It is now up to the courts to decide.
2023-09-02 15:19:00
#Panini #Fanatics #legal #war
