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In battle over resale rights, ticket site must reveal "scalpers'" identities
By Eric Bangeman | Published: October 19, 2007 - 10:21AM CT
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...ket-site-must-reveal-scalpers-identities.html
If you spend any amount of time listening to sports talk radio, you've heard of StubHub. An eBay for ticket sales—and, in fact, a subsidiary of eBay—StubHub provides a fan-to-fan marketplace for buying and selling tickets to events of all types, including sports and concerts. One National Football League franchise is trying to stop its season-ticket holders from selling their tickets over the service, and now, the New England Patriots have convinced a judge to order StubHub to turn over the names of those offering Patriots tickets on the service.
At issue is the Patriot's policy prohibiting season-ticket holders from reselling their tickets. Although the team has shown a willingness to flout NFL rules against videotaping signals of opposing coaches, it expects its season-ticket holders to either attend every game themselves or give the ducats away for free.
Superior Court Judge Allan van Gestel originally ordered StubHub to turn over the names back in July, but stayed the order pending an appeal. The appeal went nowhere and, according to the Boston Globe, the online ticket broker subsequently turned over the names. "The Patriots have said that they intend to use the identities of the purchasers and sellers not only for this case, but also for its own other allegedly legitimate uses, such as canceling season tickets of 'violators' or reporting to authorities those customers that they deem to be in violation of the Massachusetts antiscalping law," wrote Judge van Gestel.
Indeed, Massachusetts does have a rather stringent law against reselling tickets. The current law dates back to 1924 and limits resellers to a measly $2 profit above face value, along with service and business charges. But are the Patriots really trying to turn themselves into good corporate citizens by helping state authorities to prosecute those making more than a couple of bucks off of their tickets? StubHub doesn't think so, accusing the team of plotting to keep all ticket resales in house.
It's not far-fetched—there's plenty of precedent for sports teams scalping their own tickets. The Chicago Cubs were one of the first teams to go this route, setting up its own scalping site. The hapless (on the field, at least) Cubbies have told season-ticket holders that the team would be glad to resell thickets on its web site and give the ticket owners a cut of the profits. "The market flourishes whether we're in it or not," said Cubs executive VP for business operations Mark McGuire told the Chicago Sun-Times back in 2002. "We realized we can't curtail it so we decided we need to be more creative and figure out how to participate."
This isn't the first time the Patriots have gone after season-ticket holders. In 2002, John Reis of Warwick, RI, had his season tickets revoked by the franchise after selling $99 tickets to a game against the Green Bay Packers on eBay for $851. The listing included his name and address, which made it trivially easy for the Patriots to track him down. Currently, season ticket holders looking to lawfully unload their tickets can only do so on the team's TicketMaster-run TicketExchange web site—and then only for face value.
There are some privacy issues at stake here, including site users' expectations that their personal information will not be divulged without their consent. StubHub did argue that the court order violated its customer confidentiality agreement, but those concerns fell upon deaf ears. Now, the over 13,000 season-ticket holders are facing the possibility of losing their season tickets. It's no real loss for the Patriots, who have a lengthy season-ticket waiting list. But if this turns out to be the precursor of the team setting up an in-house scalping service and benefit from the demand to see what is arguably the best team in the NFL, the lawsuit is going to make the team look especially petty.
By Eric Bangeman | Published: October 19, 2007 - 10:21AM CT
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...ket-site-must-reveal-scalpers-identities.html
If you spend any amount of time listening to sports talk radio, you've heard of StubHub. An eBay for ticket sales—and, in fact, a subsidiary of eBay—StubHub provides a fan-to-fan marketplace for buying and selling tickets to events of all types, including sports and concerts. One National Football League franchise is trying to stop its season-ticket holders from selling their tickets over the service, and now, the New England Patriots have convinced a judge to order StubHub to turn over the names of those offering Patriots tickets on the service.
At issue is the Patriot's policy prohibiting season-ticket holders from reselling their tickets. Although the team has shown a willingness to flout NFL rules against videotaping signals of opposing coaches, it expects its season-ticket holders to either attend every game themselves or give the ducats away for free.
Superior Court Judge Allan van Gestel originally ordered StubHub to turn over the names back in July, but stayed the order pending an appeal. The appeal went nowhere and, according to the Boston Globe, the online ticket broker subsequently turned over the names. "The Patriots have said that they intend to use the identities of the purchasers and sellers not only for this case, but also for its own other allegedly legitimate uses, such as canceling season tickets of 'violators' or reporting to authorities those customers that they deem to be in violation of the Massachusetts antiscalping law," wrote Judge van Gestel.
Indeed, Massachusetts does have a rather stringent law against reselling tickets. The current law dates back to 1924 and limits resellers to a measly $2 profit above face value, along with service and business charges. But are the Patriots really trying to turn themselves into good corporate citizens by helping state authorities to prosecute those making more than a couple of bucks off of their tickets? StubHub doesn't think so, accusing the team of plotting to keep all ticket resales in house.
It's not far-fetched—there's plenty of precedent for sports teams scalping their own tickets. The Chicago Cubs were one of the first teams to go this route, setting up its own scalping site. The hapless (on the field, at least) Cubbies have told season-ticket holders that the team would be glad to resell thickets on its web site and give the ticket owners a cut of the profits. "The market flourishes whether we're in it or not," said Cubs executive VP for business operations Mark McGuire told the Chicago Sun-Times back in 2002. "We realized we can't curtail it so we decided we need to be more creative and figure out how to participate."
This isn't the first time the Patriots have gone after season-ticket holders. In 2002, John Reis of Warwick, RI, had his season tickets revoked by the franchise after selling $99 tickets to a game against the Green Bay Packers on eBay for $851. The listing included his name and address, which made it trivially easy for the Patriots to track him down. Currently, season ticket holders looking to lawfully unload their tickets can only do so on the team's TicketMaster-run TicketExchange web site—and then only for face value.
There are some privacy issues at stake here, including site users' expectations that their personal information will not be divulged without their consent. StubHub did argue that the court order violated its customer confidentiality agreement, but those concerns fell upon deaf ears. Now, the over 13,000 season-ticket holders are facing the possibility of losing their season tickets. It's no real loss for the Patriots, who have a lengthy season-ticket waiting list. But if this turns out to be the precursor of the team setting up an in-house scalping service and benefit from the demand to see what is arguably the best team in the NFL, the lawsuit is going to make the team look especially petty.
