What You Should Know About the Online "Fan-to-Fan" Ticket Marketplace

One of my friends asked me about a story she read involving a Kobe fan who bought tickets on StubHub to the Lakers' last home game of the season before Kobe announced his retirement. (Thank you, Angelic!) After the fan bought the tickets, the seller claimed to have typed the price incorrectly after Kobe announced his retirement and the price for comparable tickets skyrocketed. The seller canceled, relisted, and resold those same tickets. In the end, StubHub tried to find comparable tickets but came up short for the Kobe fan, and the Kobe fan was furious at how a giant like StubHub could play a role in such an injustice so nonchalantly.

The fan and the writer who posted the fan's story believe this is not right, though they use other words to get their point across. My friend asked me, "Is this legal?" My answer is a little long because the online secondary ticket market is full of complications, but the short answer is "Yes, this is legal from the online secondary ticket platform's stance."

With the convenience of this market comes risks for both buyers and sellers. Here are a few points y'all should be aware of to better understand how this market operates, what kind of role it plays in the sports industry, and why it is legal - however unfair it seems on the surface - for StubHub to handle the Kobe fan's situation the way it did.

Jaime, Contracts, CopyrightJaime MiettinenJanuary 12, 2016DMCA, StubHub, University of Michigan, Ticket Sales, Ticketmaster, Scalping, New England Patriots Comments

StubHub May Have Found the "Golden Ticket" in the Contest for the Resale Ticket Market

EBay-owned ticket reseller StubHub announced that it is filing suit against Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc., the nation's primary ticket seller for sporting and entertainment events, and the NBA's Golden State Warriors, the team that some boast is now "clearly, clearly the best team in the league" and may have this season's MVP as its leader. In the complaint filed on Monday, StubHub alleges that Ticketmaster and the NBA team engaged in "unfair and illegal anti-competitive business practices that prevents the fans from deciding how they want to resell their tickets and which artificially drives up ticket prices." You can read the full complaint here at your own pleasure.

I know what you are thinking. How can a company and a team prevent fans from reselling tickets in the secondary market where StubHub operates, especially when Ticketmaster is mostly known for operating the initial sale of the team's tickets in the primary market?

Jaime, NBA, AntitrustJaime MiettinenApril 2, 2015Ticket Sales, Ticketmaster, Resale, StubHubComment