StubHub said Monday that it filed an antitrust lawsuit against competitor Ticketmaster and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, claiming that both worked together to cancel tickets that were resold on StubHub. This is just the latest battle between the two ticket resellers.
StubHub, which is the largest ticket reseller in the U.S., said in a blog post that it “seeks to stop unfair and illegal anti-competitive business practices that prevent fans from deciding how they want to resell their tickets and which artificially drive up ticket prices.”
The company said both Ticketmaster and the Warriors “broke the law” by allegedly “threatening fans” into only using Ticketmaster to resell. The Warriors and Ticketmaster have so far declined to comment, ESPN reports.
“StubHub strives to compete fairly, ensuring that fans only pay market-driven prices based on actual supply and demand,” a StubHub spokesman said. “We believe fans, not front-office executives, have the right to decide how—and for how much—resale tickets will be bought and sold.” The company also warned in the lawsuit that “if the anti-competitive actions complained herein are not stopped, Ticketmaster is likely to seek to replicate them with other teams.”
In 2013, Ticketmaster and StubHub went head-to-head over state ticket resale laws, and last year the companies adopted new marketing tactics and strategies to compete with each other.
StubHub is owned by eBay, which reported fourth-quarter revenue of $4.9 billion, up 9% from last year.
Read this 2013 Coins2Day story for more on the history of StubHub and TicketMaster.