StubHub Wins 230 Dismissal in Anti-Scalping Case

By Eric Goldman

Fehrs v. StubHub, Inc., #0801-00515 (Ore. Cir. Ct Sept. 9, 2008). The plaintiff’s lawyer has posted some of the litigation materials filed in this case.

This is yet another lawsuit in the ongoing battle over online ticket sales. In the past year, I’ve blogged about a lawsuit over initial ticket allocation, a lawsuit over ticket resales, and a statute restricting ticket allocations (and another proposed law). Someone ought to create a blog just about online ticket sale legal regulation. There’s a lot of emerging source material.

This lawsuit is very similar to the Hill v. StubHub lawsuit I blogged about in July, Both plaintiffs sued StubHub (and, in this case, eBay) for allowing third parties to resell tickets allegedly in violation of anti-scalping laws (in Hill, it was the Hannah Montana concert tour; this lawsuit, the Boss’ tour). In the Hill case, the court rejected StubHub’s dismissal request per 47 USC 230. In this case, the court grants the 230 dismissal for StubHub and eBay in a brief non-substantive order–the opposite result. StubHub’s eligibility for 230 is currently legally unresolved, but clearly courts will have plenty more cases to develop a consistent rule.