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Sports fans have filed a class action lawsuit against Major League Baseball challenging the organization’s refusal to offer coronavirus refunds.
The MLB COVID-19 refund class action lawsuit was filed by Matthew Ajzenman and Susan Terry-Bazer, two New York baseball fans who say they purchased multiple Major League Baseball tickets for the 2020 season.
However, they claim that they were financially injured when the league canceled its 2020 season and decided not to offer refunds to ticket holders.
Ajzenman says that before the beginning of the Major League Baseball season, he purchased a package of season tickets for the 2020 season. He says that in total, the package included tickets for more than 20 games, and cost around $1,730.
According to Ajzenman, he purchased the tickets directly from Sterling Doubleday Enterprises LP and Mets Partners Inc., and payed for them via a payment plan.
The plaintiff says that the games were to be played at CitiField in Queens, New York. Allegedly, the MLB postponed all games, but have not issued refunds to ticket holders.
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In Terry-Bazer’s case, she says she purchased six tickets though Ticketmaster for an MLB game to be played between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The game was to be played at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.
Allegedly, she bought the tickets before the start of the season, for a total of $926. Though Terry-Bazer says she purchased the tickets with the intention of taking her grandson to the game, she was unable to do so because the games were canceled. Though Terry-Bazer tried to obtain a refund, she says she was denied.
In their MLB ticket holders class action lawsuit, the two baseball fans are aiming to hold Major League Baseball, its officials and the teams in the league responsible for financial injury caused by the failure to refund. They seek damages on behalf of themselves and all other ticket holders who were denied refunds to canceled games.
The baseball ticket refund class action lawsuit provides background to the MLB refund issue, noting that the Major League Baseball teams were scheduled to begin the 2020 season on March 26, 2020.
They say that the season was set to run from March 26, 2020 through October 2020, and included 81 games played at the home stadiums of each team in the league.
The MLB ticket refund class action lawsuit states that the scheduled season was interrupted beginning on March 12, 2020, because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
In an attempt to slow the spread of the virus between people, commissioner Rob Manfred of the MLB canceled the rest of Spring Training, the preparatory period prior to the season. The cancelation was implemented on March 12, 2020.
At that time, Manfred allegedly delayed the start of the baseball season by two weeks.
According to the fans, even this cancelation did not provide compensation to fans who had purchased tickets to games that had been delayed.
Though at that time, the commissioner did note that the games could be rescheduled and that the season might be able to resume, this was not to be the case, say Ajzenman and Terry-Bazer.
They stress that the league effectively was able to get out of paying refunds because no games have officially been canceled — though the games are effectively canceled, they are allegedly only “postponed.”
According to the MLB ticket holders, the choice to postpone games as opposed to cancel was a way for the league to avoid paying refunds.
The MLB cancelation class action lawsuit stresses that though the season is “postponed,” it is virtually impossible that the 2020 season will be able to be played.
To support this claim, the fans note that many dates have already passed and that government officials have communicated that the games will not be played, and if they are played, they will be played without the presence of spectators.
Additionally, the fans argue that Major League Baseball itself has “given indications” that the games will not be rescheduled.
The baseball fans are represented by David Azar, Marc Grossman, Peggy Wedgworth, Andrei Rado, Jennifer Czeisler, Blake Yagman, and Michael Acciavatti of Milberg Phillips Grossman LLP.
The Major League Baseball COVID-19 Failure to Refund Class Action Lawsuit is Matthew Ajzenman, et al. v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, Case No. 2:20-cv-03643, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division.
UPDATE: On July 8, 2020, StubHub asked a judge to send a COVID-19 MLB cancelation class action lawsuit to arbitration, instead of sending it to court.
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One thought on MLB Class Action Claims Fans Need COVID-19 Refunds
MLB holding deserves refunds for all the games not played. Using postpone instead of canceled seem very unfair. Fans like my husband get hit two ways in his pocket as well upset for actions of Major League just way avoid playing refund. You should be ashamed.