Bigfoot Sports Breaks Sues TikTok, Fanatics Over Alleged Steering to Exclusivity Deal

A Florida memorabilia seller alleges in a federal lawsuit that a TikTok account representative told it signing an exclusivity deal with Fanatics was the only way to get its banned account reinstated.

Bigfoot Sports Breaks LLC filed the antitrust suit Sept. 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against TikTok Inc., TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, ByteDance Inc. and five Fanatics entities.

In messages dated Sept. 22, 2025, Bigfoot's principal, Brian Gualdiero, asked a TikTok representative if the channel was banned "because we showed custom helmets on the videos." The representative answered "correct" and wrote, "Again, this isn’t coming from TikTok, this is coming from the IP owner."

In a later exchange, after Gualdiero wrote there had been "no sales since the ban," the representative asked, "Are you willing to sign over exclusivity to licensed product through fanatics?" When Gualdiero asked if that was "the only way to get unbanned," the representative replied, "correct- as they are the IP owner and called in the violation," adding that "this is not a TikTok violation."

The representative then connected Gualdiero with a representative from Relics Ventures, who described the company as "Fanatics’ Under Wraps distributor for Tiktok." He attached a Fanatics agreement, describing it as for breakers "who want to only sell the licensed mystery boxes," and said Fanatics "essentially vouches" for such sellers, "which is usually enough to get Tiktok accounts back up in short order."

In a later email, the Relics representative wrote, "In my experience this is the fastest way to get back up and running. That’s why Tiktok sends people in your situation over to us."

The Relics representative priced a full-size Under Wraps helmet at $675, with a minimum order of "a case which is 72 units," or $48,600 at that price. Gualdiero replied that the only way to get his business back was "spending $49,000." Bigfoot says it refused to sign, and its channel remains banned.

The contract, a Memorabilia Seller Agreement with Fanatics Mounted Memories LLC, applies its exclusivity only to memorabilia from sports licensors the seller chooses to buy through Fanatics. For those licensors, the seller agrees to sell on TikTok only memorabilia bought from Fanatics.

The agreement states the seller "is not restricted from selling any products other than Exclusive Sports Licensor Memorabilia" and "shall not be required to purchase any Memorabilia from Fanatics." It also makes "no representation" about TikTok's actions, including whether the platform will approve the seller to sell licensed memorabilia.

In a statement provided by email, a Fanatics spokesperson said, "This is another meritless lawsuit from the same group of lawyers behind a series of similar suits. By its own account, Bigfoot was removed from TikTok over NFL intellectual property issues, and by its own complaint it never signed an agreement with Fanatics. Fanatics does not force anyone to do business with us."

The spokesperson did not respond to questions about Relics Ventures or the agreement’s exclusivity clause.

As of Oct. 21, no defendant had filed a response, and no proof of service appeared on the court docket.