The New England Patriots and online scalping service StubHub have settled a lawsuit that was launched way back in November 2006.
“The settlement does not change in any way the Patriots’ policies prohibiting the resale of tickets to Patriots home games, or the Patriots’ ability to enforce those policies,” Patriots spokesman Stacey James said.
The Patriots originally alleged that StubHub was encouraging customers to resell (i.e., scalp) their tickets in violation of the team’s policy prohibiting such transactions, and in violation of Massachusetts’ anti-scalping law. StubHub filed a counterclaim, alleging that the Patriots were attempting to monopolize the “resale” (i.e., scalping) of tickets to the team’s games.
The fact that the Pats have retained the ability to revoke the ticket rights of fans who resell their tickets on StubHub means that StubHub hasn’t abandoned its ability to broker the purchases -- and that the Patriots haven’t abandoned their position that they have the right to scalp fans who are scalping tickets in violation of the terms of the purchase agreement.
At some point, a season-ticket holder who loses his or her seats by scalping tickets on StubHub might file a separate legal challenge to the team’s efforts to prevent people from selling the tickets like any other commodity that can be purchased and then resold. Until then, it’s buyer beware, when it comes to reselling.
