Panini has settled a lawsuit after four years regarding unfulfilled redemption cards. The sports card company was able to resolve the case with plaintiffs Kevin Brashear and Christopher Kitchen through mediation on March 4.
The case, which was scheduled to go to trial on May 20, will be dismissed with prejudice, according to Paul Lesko, writer of Law of Cards on Cardboard Connection.
There's an update on the Panini redemption case and it's the worst news ever.
AND I MEAN EVER.
Ready?
The case settled.
Nooooooo!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/1XqUpMH4i9
— Paul Lesko (@Paul_Lesko) March 8, 2024
Brashear and Kitchen — who are represented by Martzell, Bickford & Centola — initially filed the lawsuit against Panini in 2019 for violating Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act. According to the lawsuit, Brashear attempted to fulfill a redemption on Panini’s website of an Odell Beckham autographed card, but the card remained unfulfilled after the four-month timeframe. Brashear also allegedly attempted to communicate with Panini numerous times to no avail and never received a comparable substitute card.
Kitchen, as well, allegedly attempted to fulfill his Panini redemption autographs of Andrew Benintendi and Orlando Arcia without any luck. He also reached out to Panini and never received substitution cards.
“Panini has a duty to fill redemption cards in the manner as stated on its own website, this duty was breached when it failed to deliver the actual card or a ‘comparable’ one as guaranteed, and this failure was the direct cause for Plaintiffs’ economic, mental anguish as well as all other damages allowed for by law,” the lawsuit reads, according to Sports Card Radio. “Plaintiffs also have claims under the general tort cause of action for false advertising.Panini clearly guarantees and advertises on its website that if a buyer receives a redemption card and enters the code on its site, Panini will deliver the actual card or a ‘comparable’ one within four or eight months. As established by the allegations made herein, Panini has failed to honor this guarantee.”
🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨
Panini has just reached a settlement in the unfulfilled redemption lawsuit…
According to @Paul_Lesko, the parties will file dismissal papers within 30 days. This case was set to go to trial on May 20th, and was going to be very interesting…
Especially… pic.twitter.com/QUq5gKzIjP
— The Collectibles Guru 🧠 (@ericwhiteback) March 8, 2024
Fulfilling redemption cards has been a major issue for years for not just Panini, but Topps as well. Sometimes it takes customers years for a redemption to finally get fulfilled. And when they do get a substitute card, many feel it doesn’t live up to the value of the card they were supposed to initially get. Customers easily get left in the dark if they will ever get the autograph cards they pulled or bought and it’s something sports card companies need to take seriously.
This wasn’t the only lawsuit on Panini’s docket. Last August, Panini sued Fanatics — the owner of Topps — for alleged antitrust violations after Fanatics obtained exclusive licensing deals with the NBA, NBPA, MLB, MLBPA, NFL and NFLPA, Sportico reports. Fanatics then counter-sued Panini for unfair competition, tortious interference and breach of good faith.