The NFL’s licensing arm and its 32 teams, along with sports e-commerce platform Fanatics, scored a dismissal of a federal lawsuit brought by a company that insists a league policy requiring approval to sell NFL licensed products online violates the Sherman Act.

The NFL has historically been a ripe target for antitrust challenges, but to date, its legal armor has yet to be seriously penetrated.

NFL illegally restricts the ability of certain distributors to buy NFL merchandise and to resell it online. The judge fou

US district court judge Andrew Carter Jr. has dismissed an antitrust lawsuit filed against American football’s National Football League (NFL) relating to the league’s merchandising business Nebraska-based Casey’s Distributing Inc.