Update On WWE ‘Breach Of Contract’ Case

WWE

WWE recently ended their relationship with Panini with claims that the trading card company had breached its contract.

The contract had at least two years to run with Fanatics due to assume trading card production in 2026.

Fightful has now provided an update on the relationship between Panini and WWE, stating that a New York court has denied WWE’s restraining order against Panini.

According to Fightful, “Panini will legally be able to continue making WWE product while both WWE and Panini’s lawsuits against one another play out in court.”

There was no reason given for why the restraining order was denied by Judge Lorna Schofield.

It was also revealed that new documents were released to the public with Paul Lesko posting to Twitter.

According to Fightful, “the documents state that WWE is accusing Panini of not fulfilling a part of their contract that required Panini to create digital trading cards or physical trading card games by June 1, 2022.”

This is what apparently led WWE to terminate the deal with Panini on August 25, 2023.

It was Panini’s continuing production of WWE related products that has seen the TKO-owned company file a lawsuit.

As Lesko notes, WWE waited eighteen months between the date of the violation of contract (June 2022) and the date they actually brought the lawsuit against Panini.

As reported by Fightful, Panini has stated “they fulfilled the physical trading card game part of the deal via Pack Wars and Box Wars at numerous conventions.”

By contrast, WWE contests that “Box/Pack Wars don’t qualify as physical trading card games, and that images of physical trading cards don’t count as digital trading cards, as those images are not for sale.”

Fightful also reports that Lesko “states that WWE is asking for the court to order Panini to stop making and distributing anything related to WWE IP. Furthermore, WWE also wants Panini to return or destroy all existing inventory and pay over $5,000,000 as a result of the contract termination.”

WrestleTalk will continue to cover the WWE and Panini story here.

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• Panini
• lawsuit
• wwe

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