Varsity Brands lawsuit and ecosystem control

Katherine Van Dyck (@capitalKVD) is an experienced antitrust lawyer and founder of KVD Strategies PLLC, with senior fellowships at the American Economic Liberties Project and UC Berkeley's Civil Justice Research Initiative. During the Biden Administration, she served as an Attorney-Advisor at the Federal Trade Commission. Katie's work focuses on how concentrated economic power harms consumers, workers, and small businesses. She has been involved in numerous instances of litigation, including a multimillion dollar judgement against Varsity Brands Cheerleading and their monopoly of the competitive cheer market, as well as arguing against the SCORE Act in congress, which would grant the NCAA monopoly status to control college sports. Katie and John testified to the US House of Representatives in December 2025, discussing the massive effect of private equity involvement, an dhow vertical ownership of sports clubs, leagues, facilities and governing bodies is detrimental to children and raises prices for families.

Connect with Katie at www.KVDStrategies.com

Check out some of her articles here:

• The Shadowy Puppet Masters Who Control College Athletics, Organized Money, December 2025
• The SCORE Act: A gift to the NCAA that betrays college athletes, The Hill, August 2025
• Playing by the Rules: Bringing Law and Order to the NCAA, AELP, November 2023
• The NCAA, Antitrust and the Future of College Sports, NPR On Point, October 2023

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