Three sports memorabilia sellers suing TikTok and Fanatics say their TikTok Shop accounts were hit with trademark and gambling strikes, and that they were told signing with Fanatics was the way back. Two say they signed and stayed banned.
By August 2025, MVP Breaks was taking about $475,000 a month selling autographed NFL helmets and card breaks on TikTok Shop and had “one of the top three (3) follower counts on TikTok for sports memorabilia,” according to a lawsuit the Arizona seller filed last month.
By September 2025, its revenue had fallen to $283,000 after repeated account “strikes” for “purported trademark and intellectual property infringement as well as alleged gambling,” the filing says. Then the account was permanently banned.
What MVP Breaks says happened next is the pattern at the center of a cluster of antitrust suits that card breakers have filed against TikTok and Fanatics in the US District Court for the Central District of California.
The breakers say they were told the way back onto TikTok Shop ran through Fanatics.
Three of those cases, brought by MVP Breaks, Minnesota breaker Quad City Breaks and Ohio breaker Dorm Dudes, describe the same sequence in detail. None of the allegations has been tested in court.
Gambling Insider has reported on TikTok Shop’s tightening of its card-break rules, on separate legal claims that card breaks are illegal lotteries, and on the wider gamblification of American life.
Breakers Describe Strikes, Bans and Lost Revenue
Breakers are livestream sellers who open sealed card packs on camera or sell autographed memorabilia, with buyers paying for spots. The three breakers describe businesses that grew fast on TikTok Shop.
David Skalsky, who ran Quad City Breaks through his company QCBripNship LLC in Chisholm, Minnesota, says he was “making as much as $200,000 per month” and moved his family into a new home, according to his complaint, filed July 13.
The LLC was later discharged in Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which Skalsky blames on the defendants. Courthouse News reported the filing.
Dorm Dudes, founded by Ashland University student Zach Balo, made about $3.2 million in sales in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to its complaint, filed Sept. 8.
Ashland University reported in 2024 that the business passed $3 million in sales in its first year.
The strikes that hit their accounts were largely for trademark infringement, the three say. Dorm Dudes attaches a TikTok violation notice citing “trademark infringement” and the “Green Bay Packers.” The MVP Breaks complaint adds “alleged gambling” and says the seller “followed TikTok’s own published gambling policies.”
Each complaint also lists “allegations of gambling” resulting in “violations and permanent bans” among the conduct it asks the court to stop. The list does not say who made the allegations.
TikTok Staff Steered Sellers to Fanatics, Filings Say
All three breakers name Steve Halupka, whom they describe as TikTok Shop’s US Sports Collectibles Team Lead, as the TikTok employee they dealt with.
MVP Breaks alleges that Halupka pressured its owner to sign an exclusive agreement with Fanatics to get the banned account reinstated.
In a text exchange on or about Oct. 28, 2025, Halupka and another TikTok representative, Nick Bouris, suggested the owner contact “someone named Ethan Cole to sign with Fanatics,” the complaint says.
Asked why, Halupka replied that “they [Ethan] are helping facilitate the connection between authentic products and liaison between seller and Fanatics,” it says.
The company also says Halupka blamed the NFL for reporting the account, that Bouris wrote, “NFL wields a big, heavy sword,” and that Halupka said, “Fanatics is acting on behalf of the NFL because of their licensed rights.”
Skalsky describes a similar exchange. He says texts with Halupka blamed the bans on “the NFL flagging” the account and indicated that if Skalsky signed an exclusive contract with Fanatics, his account would be reinstated.
Skalsky and Dorm Dudes also name Sean Ceruti of SnL Consulting, a third-party consultant to breakers. Skalsky says Ceruti told him he would “coordinate with Mr. Halupka at TikTok” to reinstate the account if Skalsky signed with Fanatics.
Dorm Dudes alleges that SnL Consulting warned in early 2025 that continuing to sell helmets from rival supplier The Real Autograph would get the account “permanently banned,” and that an August 2025 text from SnL’s Larry Legend warned against selling any memorabilia not from Fanatics.
It says Halupka, Ceruti, and Legend led the company to believe Fanatics was “the only licensed option” for full-size NFL helmets. The complaint itself says Riddell holds the NFL’s exclusive helmet license.
Dorm Dudes also alleges that Ceruti and Legend were “owners or stakeholders in L2 Global LLC, an authorized distributor of Fanatics products.”
Fanatics’ ties to the NFL run through both its collectibles and betting businesses. Its Topps brand became the exclusive trading-card licensee of the NFL and the NFL Players Association in April, ESPN reported.
In August, the league added Fanatics to DraftKings and FanDuel as one of its official betting operators, Gambling Insider has reported.
Two Breakers Say They Signed With Fanatics and Stayed Banned
MVP Breaks says it signed the Fanatics Memorabilia Seller Agreement on Nov. 25, 2025, hoping to save the channel, and attaches a copy. “However, the MVP Breaks channel was never reinstated,” it says.
Skalsky makes the same claim: “Despite signing the exclusive contract, Plaintiff’s account continued to be banned.” He says he was left with tens of thousands of dollars of inventory he could not sell because he was now limited to Fanatics products, such as Under Wraps.
Dorm Dudes says it agreed through its consultants to buy and sell only Fanatics helmets, including Under Wraps NFL helmets, after being told the arrangement was a condition of offering NFL-licensed products on TikTok.
It says it paid “an inflated price of $625/helmet” and was left with more than $1 million in inventory from another supplier that it could not sell.
MVP Breaks says it rebuilt under a new entity, MVP Memorabilia Breaks, which averages about $300,000 a month.
That channel has since been “shadow banned” several times, the company says, including receiving violations on Sept. 8, 2026, for “Inappropriate Sexual Activity” while the hosts were discussing the Los Angeles Chargers.\v
Fanatics Denies the Seller Agreement Requires Exclusivity
Fanatics has disputed the exclusivity claims in court. In a March 23 letter filed in an earlier case brought by GFC & Supply, Fanatics lawyer Lawrence Buterman of Latham & Watkins wrote that “nothing in that agreement imposes a requirement on breakers to exclusively sell Fanatics products on TikTok.”
The letter said Fanatics had no record of any signed agreement or sales with that plaintiff. GFC voluntarily dismissed the case on Aug. 14, the court docket shows.
TikTok says it can take enforcement action against sellers that violate its policies or fail to meet performance standards. Measures can include removing or freezing listings, restricting account features, reducing shop or product visibility and restricting a seller’s ability to take new orders. Its intellectual property policy also allows for the suspension or termination of accounts.
Since July, its advertising policy has allowed approved prediction-market and event-contract ads in 17 markets, including the US and the UK. Advertisers must obtain TikTok’s permission and comply with requirements including appropriate age targeting, as Gambling Insider has reported.
TikTok, Fanatics and the NFL did not respond to Courthouse News when Skalsky sued in July.
Attorney Jeremy Shafer brought the GFC, Quad City Breaks, Dorm Dudes, and MVP Breaks suits. A fifth breaker, Bigfoot Sports Breaks, sued TikTok and Fanatics entities on Sept. 11; the full complaint was not publicly available when Gambling Insider checked.
TikTok, Fanatics, the NFL, and Shafer did not respond to Gambling Insider’s requests for comment by the time of publication.
The post Breakers’ Lawsuits Say TikTok Banned Them, Then Pointed Them to Fanatics appeared first on Gambling Insider.