Major League Baseball is facing federal antitrust litigation in Manhattan over claims that the organization and its teams have conspired with Fanatics Inc. to corner the market for MLB products purchased through online platforms like Amazon.com Inc.'s marketplace for third-party sellers.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday by a sports merchandise business, also targets Fanatics and the league’s 30 teams. It accuses MLB of tilting the scales in favor of Fanatics, which it partly owns, through restrictions on distribution of licensed products to other wholesalers and retailers.
Fanatics now “dominates” online MLB merchandise sales thanks to the restrictions, which require distributors and ...
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