TicketNews, and its parent company TicketNetwork, scored a legal victory this month when it successfully defended itself against a subpoena from StubHub as part of StubHub’s year-long legal dispute with rival Ticketmaster.
The subpoena was issued on August 21, 2008, requesting that TicketNews provide a recording of a May 2008 broker meeting held in Las Vegas by Ticketmaster and its subsidiary TicketsNow. TicketNews had until September 16 to turn over the recording but TicketNetwork denied the request. Read the subpoena here. The stock tickers for Ticketmaster (symbol: TKTM) and StubHub parent company eBay (symbol: EBAY) are also listed below.
The three-hour recording, which can be downloaded in its entirety by clicking here [recording removed 03/07/09], features commentary on the state of the secondary ticket market by Ticketmaster President and CEO Sean Moriarty and TicketsNow President and CEO Cheryl Rosner. Stubhub, which was sued by Ticketmaster last year, believes the recording contains valuable information on Ticketmaster’s future business plans. The May 2008 Las Vegas meeting with ticket brokers from around the country was designed to address brokers’ concerns about the role that the two industry giants will play in the marketplace.
At one point, Moriarty reveals on the recording that “the practice of tickets turning up on those {secondary} sites before they go on sale to the public will continue”, but he refused to disclose the specific sources of those tickets. There are huge financial growth opportunities that exist in the secondary market, an industry that is expected to grow to $4.5 billion by 2012, according to Forrester Research.
“The subpoena was filed in Connecticut and according to the state’s shield law, TicketNews is legally protected from being forced to hand over the recording it has in its possession,” Don Vaccaro, CEO of TicketNetwork, said in a statement. “Similar freedom of speech laws apply in the states of California and Nevada, the states where the suit was filed and where the recording originated.”
TicketsNow videotaped the meeting, but despite claiming that it would publish that video, it never has. In addition, TicketNews has learned that additional audio recordings of the meeting also exist.
