StubHub scored a court victory in Oregon recently when it successfully convinced a judge to dismiss a case where a Bruce Springsteen fan believed tickets to see The Boss were unfairly being resold on StubHub.
Portland, OR resident Sharon Fehrs allegedly tried to buy tickets on Ticketmaster to see Springsteen back in March in the city, but discovered they were sold out. She then went to StubHub where she allegedly found tickets but didn’t purchase them. However, she believed that since third-party brokers or others were reselling the tickets on the Web site that was a violation of the Portland city ordinance prohibiting ticket scalping.
Portland prohibits the resale of tickets above face value for events in the city, but like in other areas where such laws still exist, the ordinance is rarely enforced.
“The language of this ordinance does not explicitly provide a private cause of action to citizens who claimed to have been damaged as a result of conduct violating the ordinance,” Circuit Court Judge Marilyn E. Litzenberger wrote in her decision tossing out the case.
StubHub, as an ISP, believes it is protected from the actions of third-party resellers under the Communications Decency Act (CDA), and has successfully argued that fact in the past.
“We’re pleased with the court’s ruling granting our motion to dismiss,” StubHub spokesperson Sean Pate told TicketNews. “StubHub provides an exciting platform for fans to buy and sell tickets and our ability to invest in further innovations and improvements to the fan experience on our site would be hindered if suits like these were allowed to proceed against us. We also applaud the court’s confirmation that the CDA shields us from lawsuits based on the listing of tickets for sale.”
