Ticketmaster and the Warriors on Friday filed motions to dismiss StubHub's federal antitrust lawsuit against them, arguing the secondary ticketing company's claims of monopolization fail on multiple grounds. Ticketmaster in its response in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said StubHub's claims suffer a "fatal shortcoming" due to those claims being premised on a dominant position in secondary ticketing that Ticketmaster says it does not have. "Ticketmaster is not remotely dominant in any market for secondary ticket services in general," Ticketmaster said in its filing. "StubHub is actually the dominant secondary ticket platform, and the most StubHub can allege about Ticketmaster is that it is 'a substantial and growing provider of Secondary Ticket Exchange services.' That's a fatal shortcoming for a plaintiff asserting antitrust claims like tying, exclusive dealing and monopolization, all of which depend on both market power and substantial 'foreclosure' or 'exclusion' from the relevant market." The Warriors in its companion motion said that StubHub had an opportunity to win the team's ticket resale business two years ago, but failed, and is now attempting to cast that loss as an antitrust violation. StubHub earlier this year filed suit against the pair, alleging the team and Ticketmaster illegally conspired to force season-ticket holders to use only the Ticketmaster-powered NBATickets.com platform for resale. But the Warriors in their motion said, "A ticket to a sporting event is a revocable license, and a licensor has long been permitted to impose restrictions on its licensees, including a complete restriction on transferability." The motions to dismiss are slated to be heard before Judge Maxine Chesney on July 31 in S.F. The suit is widely seen as a landmark dispute that will help define the terms of a ticket long term.
