A federal suit was filed by a fan Charles Franz on behalf of anybody buying Fanatics NFL gear since 2016 from Fanatics. The suit is not about exclusive production, but about anti-competitive arrangements that squeeze out any distribution but Fantatics from the marketplace. The suit was filed against Fanatics and also the NFL and its affiliates. The legal claim is that the anti-competitive arrangements keep consumers paying prices that are too high in the $4billion per year business of NFL merch which has Fanatics as the top dog making the lion’s share of NFL team merchandise.

The NFL apparently has not commented on the suit. Fanatics claims that this is just a “cut and paste” of previous suits that were thrown out of court. If you want to read the 92 page “cut and paste” (he said ironically…) it is here. 

Courthouse News Service has info on the suit.

If you are hoping to win the right to screenprint NFL merch, this is not the suit for you, it is a consumer suit only.