Ticketmaster faces anti-trust law suit from StubHub

In what could prove to be a landmark case in the sports ticket marketplace, Live Nation's Ticketmaster is being sued by eBay-owned StubHub over its official alliance with the Golden State Warriors basketball team. Ticketmaster is the primary ticket seller for the Warriors, and also operates the official season ticket resale platform, where tickets can be officially resold. The basketball team threatens to cancel any tickets it sees being touted on other secondary sites, like StubHub: reselling a ticket is usually a breach of the terms and conditions of the original purchase. The threat has apparently worked. StubHub claims that listings for Warriors tickets, which is currently the hottest ticket in the NBA, are down 80 percent in the past year.

But StubHub has alledged that this amounts to anti-competitive behaviour on Ticketmaster's part. The eBay firm says in its complaint: "If you are a Warriors fan and you want season tickets, you have one choice: buy them through Ticketmaster". The company's General Counsel Michelle Fang then told Bloomberg that her client was suing in the interest of Warriors' fans, adding of Ticketmaster's motives: "Given that they haven't been able to win when we've competed on a level playing field, they're trying to compete unfairly".Ticketmaster responded to the litigation, saying: "We are disappointed that StubHub has filed a baseless lawsuit that asks the courts to help prop up its business against true fan-friendly competition. NBA teams like the Golden State Warriors have implemented ticket exchanges powered by Ticketmaster because they want ticket resale to be a secure experience, not an opportunity for scalping and fraud".

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12584885/stubhub-sues-golden-state-warriors-alleging-monopoly

StubHub announces US emerging talent shows

eBay's secondary ticketing website StubHub has announced a series of five live shows in the US to promote new artists, the first taking place in LA on the 18th May. Acts are still TBC but tickets will be available for sale through StubHub itself for $60. StubHub's Chief Marketing Officer Michael Lattig told Billboard that this was to become a long term project, saying: "This is about doing something that we can repeat and continue to bring around the country and deliver to fans in as many markets as makes sense".

O2 appoints StubHub for resales

eBay's secondary ticketing service StubHub has become the official resale platform of London's O2 Arena. Confirming the StubHub/O2 partnership, the London venue's General Manager Rebecca Kane told CMU: "By partnering with StubHub we are working with a resale marketplace that has a proven pedigree in serving fans and providing an innovative service for our customers. Integrating our own ticketing platform means that fans can buy in confidence and enjoy the best in live entertainment at The O2".

eBay shifts tickets to StubHub

eBay UK has confirmed that it is in the process of shifting the ticket reselling that occurs on its online auction platform over to the UK wing of StubHub, the firm's secondary ticketing service which launched in the UK last year.

Ebay moves ticketing to StubHub

eBay is phasing out its ticket resale service in the UK in a bid to push users over to the British version of StubHub, the eBay-owned secondary ticketing service that launched over in the UK last March.

AEG ink deal with StubHub

AEG has announced an alliance with eBay ticketing service StubHub which will see the auction site's secondary ticketing set up declared the official resale platform for some US shows promoted or hosted by AEG. Under the new arrangement, resellers using StubHub will be able to have tickets for AEG shows automatically reassigned to buyers using the ticket's barcode, meaning fans buying from the secondary market won't rely on the seller to deliver the ticket. As part of the new alliance, eBay-owned PayPal will also become a payment option on AEG's new primary ticketing service AXS.com.

StubHub launches mobile app

Ebay owned secondary ticketing company StubHub has announced the launch of a new interactive seating map for mobile devices. The advances to the mobile app and mobile website will allow consumers to choose individual seating sections and see the range of prices available throughout the section as well as view the sightlines from the section. The company bills itself as "the world's largest marketplace" and continues to build it's online and mobile platforms

Stubhub rewards regulars

StubHub have announced the launch of their new customer rewards program saying the initiative is the first of its kind in the ticketing business, akin to similar programs in the travel and credit card industries, and it rewards loyal customers for their continued usage of StubHub services. 

StubHub launches un UK

StubHub, eBay's secondary ticketing service, has launched in the UK. In the wake of Channel 4’s Dispatches programmes in the UK exposing some of the business practices of Viagogo and Seatweave the company's GM International Brigitte Ricou-Bellan told The Huffington Post: "We have a very different proposition which does not include buying and selling tickets on our own behalf, nor benefiting from direct allocations from promoters and venues.”

Stubhub gains seating patents

Ticket resale marketplace StubHub has been granted U.S. patents relating to methods of "mapping price and location" for tickets at an event venue, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Newly filed documents indicate that the company has been granted other ticketing-related patents dating back to 2009, but the most recent of the StubHub patents was granted earlier this month.

StubHub to launch in UK but Scarlet Mist closes down

Stubhub have announced that they will begin operations in the UK. It will put the American ticket resale business up against Viagogo, which (also founded by Eric Baker) and StubHib’s now parent company, eBay. At the same time ethical ticket exchange Scarlet Mist said that it was closing down due to criminal activity of the site by unspecified users. Site founder Richard and Olly Marks said in a statement this morning that the decision to close was due to "unacceptably high levels of fraud carried out by a small number of criminals".

Ticketmaster offers dynamic ticketing to promoters

Live Nation's Ticketmaster has set up a partnership with analytics company MarketShare to offer dynamic pricing to promoters who use a platform to sell their tickets. The new technology Ticketmaster plan to employ will, according to the live firm's press release "allow sports teams, artists, promoters, and venues to better understand the value of their ticket inventory throughout the entire ticketing process - both prior to, and during the onsale". The news follows AEG's February announcement that AEG Live had gone into business with a tech start up called Outbox Technology to launch its own ticketing service. The move should ultimately enable AEG to become independent from Ticketmaster. Outbox is heasded up by ex Ticketmaster chief, Frederic Rosen.

Elsewhere in ticketing news, Music Week reports that StubHub is looking to expand into the European market, particularly in the music and entertainment secondary market.

StubHub guilty of violating anti-scalping laws

TicketNews.com report that StubHub has been found to be in violation of North Carolina's former anti-scalping laws for its part in the 2007 sale of high-priced Hannah Montana tickets by a reseller on the company's exchange Judge Ben Tennille ruled that StubHub and Massachusetts reseller Jason Holohan violated the laws when Holohan sold four Hannah Montana tickets to parents Jeffrey and Lisa Hill for a total of $596, plus $59.60 in service fees and $11.95 in shipping costs