Mississippi School District Sues Riddell, BSN Sports and Other Suppliers Over Alleged Bid-Rigging Scheme That Inflated Costs for Student Athletic Programs
Class action seeks to recover overcharges paid by Mississippi public school districts for helmets, uniforms and other sports equipment
GULFPORT, MS – Hancock County School District, represented by Cuneo Gilbert Flannery & LaDuca with its co-counsel, filed the first class action against some of the nation’s largest sports equipment suppliers, including Riddell and BSN Sports, alleging that they conspired for more than a decade to rig bids and fix prices on equipment sold to Mississippi public schools. The scheme forced school districts to pay inflated prices for helmets, uniforms and other gear for over a decade, draining taxpayer money from tight school budgets and making it increasingly difficult for the district to maintain robust athletic programs districts for their students.
“Mississippi families, educators and taxpayers trusted that the bidding process would get their schools a fair price, and the complaint lays out how that trust was exploited for years,” said Charles J. LaDuca, firm chairman at Cuneo Gilbert Flannery & LaDuca. “Every dollar overpaid for a helmet or a uniform is a dollar that didn’t go to students. This lawsuit seeks to return that money to the districts that lost it.”
The civil case follows a U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division investigation into bid rigging in the school sports equipment market. Sales employees of Riddell, BSN Sports and Rex Team Sports are among those who have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty in federal court. The conduct admitted in those cases affected numerous procurements at dozens of Mississippi schools.
“Public schools don’t have the option of going without football helmets or uniforms, and these suppliers exploited that to charge them more,” said Evelyn Riley, partner at Cuneo Gilbert Flannery & LaDuca. “The criminal cases established that this conduct happened. This class action is about holding the companies themselves accountable and making sure our client and class members never pay rigged prices again.”
The proposed class includes all Mississippi public school districts that bought sports equipment or related services, such as helmet reconditioning and apparel customization, directly from the defendants or their co-conspirators. Mississippi has 137 public school districts. The lawsuit seeks treble damages under the Sherman Act and an injunction barring the defendants from continuing the alleged conduct.
The school district and the proposed class are represented by Cuneo Gilbert Flannery & LaDuca, LLP firm chairman Charles LaDuca, partner Evelyn Riley, and attorney Vienna Chan. The case is Hancock County School District v. Riddell Sports Group, Inc., et al., Case No. 1:26-cv-00324, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.