(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to toss Tickets.com Inc.’s antitrust suit against Ticketmaster Corp.
Tickets.com had claimed that Ticketmaster’s multi-year exclusive contracts stifled competition and were in violation of federal antitrust laws, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.
The appeals court agreed with the previous ruling, concluding that there was no evidence that Ticketmaster’s contracts with venues blocked competition.
“Six years is about as long as the average duration of Ticketmaster’s venue contracts,” the three-judge panel wrote. “Tickets.com has not shown that contract length is inherently unreasonable or that competitive entry is unduly difficult.”
The dispute between the two companies began in 1999, whtn Ticketmaster sued Tickets.com in an intellectual property suit. A judge dismissed the majority of that lawsuit, but Tickets.com countersued soon after with the antitrust suit. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
