Major League Baseball, its 30 teams and retailer Fanatics have engaged in antitrust activities that have enabled the entities to illegally dominate sales of MLB-branded merchandise on third-party online marketplaces such as Amazon.com, a new lawsuit charges.

Filed June 9 by Omaha, NE-based licensed merchandise seller Casey’s Distributing, the suit accuses MLB, its teams and Fanatics of imposing unfair restrictions on how licensed products are distributed to other wholesalers and retailers.

The restrictions amount to collusion that enables Fanatics, which MLB partly owns, to establish an unassailably dominant position in the e-commerce market for sales of professional baseball merch, asserts the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. 

“MLB, Fanatics, and certain horizontally competing licensees and retailers have entered into various agreements that serve to severely limit Fanatics’ and defendants’ competition,” the suit states. “These agreements violate the antitrust laws. … Fanatics now dominates Amazon’s, Walmart’s, and other [third-party online marketplaces] as a result of the agreements.”

The suit asserts that at least five licensees have agreements with Fanatics that prohibit the licensees from selling to entities that will retail the products on Amazon or on other online retailers.

“Some of these agreements go so far as to mandate that the licensees’ products be sold only to Fanatics, or else the licensees’ licenses would be revoked,” the suit alleges.

“Indeed,” the complaint continues, “Casey’s has seen a written agreement that appears to be between Fanatics and its horizontally competing licensees to group boycott entities, such as Casey’s, from competing with Fanatics and its colluding licensees in selling products on or to Amazon. And, licensees told Casey’s that in enforcing the purported MLB policies, licensees were acting at the direction of Fanatics.”

The suit maintains that MLB “aids and abets” Fanatics in online dominance because the league invested more than $50 million to become a minority equity shareholder in the retailer in 2017.

“As Fanatics’ value grows, so does the value of the MLB’s equity share in Fanatics,” the legal filing asserts. “Thus, it is in the MLB’s interest to assist Fanatics in its campaign to control as much of the online retail space as possible.”

In the June 9 complaint, Casey’s Distributing is asking for class action status for its suit and calling on a federal judge to prevent MLB, its teams and Fanatics from enforcing collusive policies that violate antitrust law. The complaint also asks that the court award the plaintiffs compensation for costs incurred related to the suit, such as attorneys’ fees, as well awards of “other such relief that the court deems just, reasonable and appropriate.”

In March, a group of consumers filed a similar antitrust class action lawsuit against the National Football League, its teams and Fanatics. Casey’s Distributing also sued the NFL and Fanatics in May over antitrust concerns.