NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - Regal Cinemas, in response to a class action lawsuit over booking fees, says online customers are given the total price of tickets before they ever finalized their payments.
The company on April 12 filed a motion to dismiss one of many similar lawsuits around New York over online fees, arguing plaintiff Tim Jones lacks standing to bring suit because he suffered no financial harm.
A $1.80 booking fee is at issue in the Regal case. It allegedly violates the state's Arts & Cultural Affairs Law because Regal showed Jones a ticket price before adding the booking fee.
"States cannot elevate legal infractions into Article III injuries by creating a new cause of action," the motion says.
"The ACAL does not prohibit booking fees; the ACAL endeavors to regulate the timing of a disclosure. But Plaintiff did not experience concrete harm by waiting a few moments to learn the exact amount before he decided to purchase a movie ticket."
Regal's website displays the face value of a movie ticket and notes that it excludes booking fees, the company says. After plaintiffs like Jones select their seats, Regal offers an itemization of all costs - including the $1.80 booking fee.
The suit seeks statutory damages of $50 per violation of the ACAL and claims a ticking clock on the site pressures customers to quickly go through the purchase process without checking for fees.
"Because New York is a busy place, and because these fees are only flashed after a movie-goer selects their seats, Defendant can plausibly put its customers on a shot clock and tell them they need to decide quick, because Defendant cannot hold their seats open forever," the suit says.
"This cheap trick has enabled Defendant to swindle substantial sums of money from its customers."
Philip L. Fraietta and Stefan Bogdanovich of Bursor & Fisher are representing the plaintiff.
Jonathan Potts and Laith Hamdan of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner represent Regal.