A Collector's Lawsuit Against Fanatics Has Been Officially Dismissed

After months with the chance to refile their lawsuit against Fanatics, the plaintiffs in the case motioned for dismissal with prejudice.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court | Rick Wood / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The antitrust lawsuit by a collector against Fanatics is officially over. Earlier this month, plaintiffs in Scaturo v. Fanatics voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice, a move that was approved by the court. In short, the lawsuit is finished and cannot be refiled.

From a Fanatics spokesperson, "We said from the start that this was a baseless and fundamentally flawed copycat lawsuit, since Fanatics was being accused of raising prices on cards we didn’t even produce. The Court agreed and ruled that this case was legally deficient. We are happy that the case has now been fully dismissed with prejudice.”

The development wasn't entirely unexpected.

Background on the Court Case Against Fanatics

Back in March, the court dismissed the collectors' claims after finding that the plaintiffs failed to adequately establish they had suffered financial harm. At the time, the plaintiffs were given an opportunity to continue pursuing the case. Instead, they have now chosen to bring the matter to a close.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2025 by a group of collectors who accused Fanatics, the NFL, MLB, NBA and their respective players associations of using exclusive licensing agreements to unfairly limit competition in the trading card market.

Looking Ahead for Collectors

For the average collector, this ruling probably won't change much. Products will continue to be released. Cards will continue to be bought and sold. The hobby will look much the same tomorrow as it did yesterday.

While some products have come out at higher prices than years past, we've also seen the worst offenders on the secondary market. Thankfully, as Gio and Jesse have discussed, with the exception of a few products, most have come down significantly on the secondary market over the last month or two.

Still, the dismissal is likely to draw attention because of another case that remains active.

Looking Ahead to a Panini-Fanatics Legal Showdown

The same federal judge handling Scaturo is also overseeing the ongoing lawsuit between Panini and Fanatics. That connection immediately caught the attention of hobby attorney Paul Lesko following the March ruling.

It also shouldn't be lost as to what this decision potentially means for Panini's antitrust case against Fanatics.

Panini can not be very happy this morning....especially since the same judge that just dismissed this case is the same judge in the Panini v. Fanatics case.

— Paul Lesko (@Paul_Lesko) March 25, 2026

Lesko has made several appearances on the Sports Cards Nonsense podcast discussing not just this lawsuit, but other lawsuits involving the hobby. The noted connection between the judge and the Panini case may prove important, but it's unclear at the moment how things may proceed. Whether that proves to be the case remains unclear.

The two lawsuits are not identical. Scaturo involved collectors alleging consumer harm, while Panini's claims were brought by a direct competitor. Even so, many hobby observers have viewed the cases through a similar lens, as both center on Fanatics' growing position in the licensed sports collectibles business.

The only certainty here is that Fanatics is out of one lawsuit the hobby was following.

The larger dispute between Panini and Fanatics remains ongoing, and its outcome is likely to have a far greater impact on the future of the hobby than Scaturo ever did.