November 28, 2006

Tickets to Big Trouble: Pats Sue StubHub

New England Patriots

The New England Patriots yesterday lowered the legal boom on a popular Internet site the team contends has become a major source of counterfeit and voided tickets. The Pats yesterday filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court against StubHub in a move to bar the Internet site from reselling the team’s highly coveted tickets.

The Pats fired their legal salvo after dozens of fans showed up at games with phony or voided tickets bought over StubHub, which operates an online market for ticket buyers and sellers. While some were counterfeits, others were voided tickets sold by fans after they had their season-ticket privileges revoked.

The team is also looking to reclaim some of the profits made by StubHub. Some of the counterfeit and voided tickets sold for more than $700, with StubHub taking 15 percent, according to the team’s spokesman and its lawyer.

A spokesman for StubHub declined comment, saying the company had not yet seen the lawsuit.

“One of the forms of relief we are seeking is to stop them from continuing to traffic in Patriots tickets,” said Daniel Goldberg of Bingham McCutchen, the Pats longtime outside legal counsel.

Details here from The Boston Herald.

Posted by John at November 28, 2006 8:38 PM
Comments

The Patriots ticket exchange has little or no tickets for sale. StubHub has hundreds. The fans seem to have a clear preference for whose service to use. This is not about legal issues, it is about money.

T

Posted by: Theotis at November 29, 2006 3:37 PM

Who is the ticketing company that helped the Patriots void the tickets sold on StubHub?

http://www.ticketmaster.com/artist/805980/

The same company that operates the Patriots’ competing ticket exchange.

http://teamexchange.ticketmaster.com/html/eventlist.htmI?l=EN&team=patriots

The same company that also teamed with Tom Petty to void tickets to get back at scalpers.

http://localrhythms.wordpress.com/2006/05/10/tom-petty-strikes-against-scalpers/

The same company that happened to announce many new deals helping teams resell tickets today

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,27984.shtml

The same company that wants tickets resold above face value to be illegal unless they are “resold by an issuer with a contract with the event's organizer (like an NFL team or music venue)”

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.25049/pub_detail.asp

Coincidence?

Posted by: Bill, esq. at November 30, 2006 12:15 AM