NFLPA’s Early Exit From Panini Deal Could Fuel Fanatics Legal Battle

The NFL Players Association’s effort last year to end its agreement with trading-card giant Panini early cost the union $7 million. 

A three-arbitrator panel ruled the NFLPA’s attempt to void the final two-plus years left in its contract with Panini to start a deal early with Fanatics was “invalid” and “constituted a breach” in contract, according to the one-page decision obtained by Front Office Sports. The NFLPA cited a change-of-control provision in the contract and reasoned a substantial change in Panini’s executive team was enough to trigger the clause.

The damage amount was determined by the lost profits Panini suffered during a 50-day span last year when the NFLPA refused to process new products for Panini to offer consumers under the agreement that runs through early 2026. Fanatics wasn’t a party to the arbitration. 

“The effort to terminate Panini was wrong from the start,” Stuart Singer, Panini’s lawyer from Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, said in a statement to FOS. “We now look forward to holding Fanatics responsible for their anticompetitive and wrongful actions in our pending suit in federal court.”

Puck News was first to report the arbitration outcome. 

The arbitration panel concluded Fanatics didn’t collude with the NFLPA ahead of executive director Lloyd Howell’s decision last August to abandon Panini, said a source with knowledge of the arbitration panel’s decision. That determination was reached after a review of all the evidence presented in the case, including communications between the NFLPA and Fanatics, according to the same source.

Last year, WWE also sought to use a change-of-control provision to end its deal with Panini. But a federal judge denied WWE an injunction and that deal remains in place. 

Legal Fight Wages On

It’s likely the arbitration decision will be leveraged in the legal fight between Panini and Fanatics. 

Last August, Panini America filed an antitrust suit against Fanatics, which landed deals in recent years with MLB, the NBA, the NFL, and their players’ unions as it entered the collectibles market. The NFLPA received an undisclosed equity stake in Fanatics as part of its contract. 

Days after the Panini lawsuit was filed, Fanatics countersued. In its complaint, Fanatics alleged Panini “is either unable or unwilling to legitimately compete with Fanatics Collectibles on the merits.”

Both cases in the Southern District of New York remain active and neither has a trial date.