StubHub Files Antitrust Suit Against TM

StubHub filed suit in the northern district of California March 29 bringing forth claims against Ticketmaster and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors including unlawful tying, restraint of trade, conspiracy to monopolize, violation of the Cartwright Act, violation of California’s Unfair Competition law and tortious interference.

The complaint notes that Ticketmaster and the Warriors have canceled fans’ regular-season and playoff-game tickets when they used StubHub and other exchanges to resell tickets, and in other cases threatened fans with cancellation of tickets to force them to use Ticketmaster’s resale exchange exclusively.

StubHub alleges listings for Warriors tickets are down 80 percent in the past year. Sources reportedly close to the matter told ESPN the team has gotten more restrictive about reselling outside of the TM platform this season as the Warriors have been one of the best teams in the league.

“If the anti-competitive actions complained herein are not stopped, Ticketmaster is likely to seek to replicate them with other teams,” the suit says. “As a result, millions of Americans will be held captive to a monopoly secondary ticketing exchange.” StubHub seeks an order to enjoin TM and the Warriors from continuing their efforts to limit competition in the market, damages, costs and attorneys’ fees.

Though the suit fails to list an exact dollar amount in damages, it does note several times that “StubHub has been and will continue to be injured in its business and property in an amount not presently known with precision, but which is, at minimum, millions of dollars prior to trebling.”