LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – Ticketmaster and Live Nation are asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by baseball fans who allege they weren’t given refunds for cancelled Major League Baseball games this year.
The class action was filed earlier this year on behalf of plaintiffs who said they purchased tickets to games that never happened because of the coronavirus pandemic. It named dozens of defendants, including the two ticket-selling companies.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation say any dispute they have with customers is supposed to be subject to arbitration.
“Every fan that purchases tickets using a LN/TM website must accept LN/TM’s Terms of Use, which contains a mandatory arbitration clause requiring the user to arbitrate essentially any disputes…” the companies’ lawyers wrote in a motion to dismiss filed July 2.
The motion also says the plaintiffs failed to allege they even used those sites when buying their tickets. Since the case alleges fraud and is subject to a higher pleading standard, the case against them should be tossed, LN/TM says.
“They do not allege that they detrimentally relied on anything LN/TM did or said, much less supply the requisite ‘particularity’ required by the Federal Rules,” the motion says.
“Plaintiffs choice to name (Live Nation) is particularly mystifying. No plaintiff alleges any transaction with these Defendants, much less any misconduct by them. Nor do Plaintiffs allege a basis on which these Defendants could be held liable for the alleged conduct of their corporate affiliate, Ticketmaster.”
Major League Baseball is one of the many defendants in the case, which alleges fans were stuck with “unusable tickets for unplayable games.” Milberg Phillips is representing the plaintiffs.
Latham & Watkins is representing LN/TM.