49ers, Ticketmaster Ask For Dismissal of Antitrust Class Action

The San Francisco 49ers and Ticketmaster asked that a potential class action lawsuit stemming from allegations that ticket holders are hindered by not being allowed to print tickets until 72 hours before a game should be dismissed over claims that the case is legally defective.

The 49ers and Ticketmaster allowed lead plaintiff Amir Kazemzadeh to amend his antitrust class action lawsuit last month but even with the amendment, the defendants state that he did not do enough to “justify the tremendous expense of antitrust discovery.”

According to the 49ers class action lawsuit, season ticket holders are restricted from reselling their tickets by instituting policies that make it difficult to sell tickets through venues other than Ticketmaster. Kazemzadeh asserted two claims of Sherman Act violations against the named defendants and one violation of California state law against the 49ers alone.

In their motion to dismiss the antitrust class action lawsuit, the 49ers state that all ticket holders (not just season pass owners) must present either a digital copy of the ticket on a smartphone or a PDF print-out of the ticket. The PDF copy of the game ticket is not available until 72 hours of the game. According to the 49ers, that policy was adopted to reduce the risk of fraud or duplicate tickets.

The 49ers allege that just because Kazemzadeh would prefer to “turn back the clock to an era when a seller could physically hand a cardstock ticket to a buyer or print one or more at will,” it does not support an antitrust claim.

Furthermore, the 49ers refute both claims of alleged antitrust injuries of Kazmzadeh that he was unable to sell certain tickets because of the new policy and that he received less money than he would have had the tickets been sold earlier. In their motion to dismiss the ticket antitrust class action lawsuit, the 49ers state that neither of these alleged injuries is enough to satisfy Kazmzadeh’s burden to plead antitrust injury.

The 49ers claim that the plaintiff, like all ticket holders, has the ability to sell tickets on whatever platform he wants. In their motion to dismiss the antitrust class action lawsuit, the 49ers state that Kazmzadeh now has to perform one extra step in that he has to log onto the StubHub within 72 hours prior to game day in order to sell his tickets. They state that the new policy is not meant to harm competition, and that it is merely frustrating to the plaintiff who wants sell tickets the exact same way he did last year.

Likewise, Ticketmaster also filed a motion to dismiss the antitrust class action lawsuit stating that the courts consistently refuse to recognize single-brand product market definitions because “if the provision of, say, 49ers tickets by the 49ers and their agent (i.e. Ticketmaster) were a market unto itself, then virtually every professional sports team and performing artist—not to  mention every airline, rail carrier, motor coach, movie theatre, museum, and other ticketed services—would equally be a ‘monopolist’ subject to regulation.”

Kazemzadeh is represented by Abbas Kazerounian of the Kazerouni Law Group APC and Joshua B. Swigart and Naomi B. Spector of Hyde & Swigart.

The 49ers and Ticketmaster Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit is Kazemzadeh v. San Francisco 49ers, et al., Case No. 5:15-cv-03593, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.