SAN FRANCISCO (CelebrityAccess) — A federal judge dismissed with prejudice an antitust lawsuit accusing the San Francisco 49ers NFL franchise and Ticketmaster of colluding to monopolize the secondary ticket market for the team's season tickets.
Amir Kazemzadeh, the lead plaintiff in the class action, brought the suit against Ticketmaster and the 49ers in August, 2015, alleging that the defendants prevented season ticket holders from accessing their tickets until 72 hours before a game last year. Kazemzadeh claims that the policy, prevented him from printing his tickets in advance and giving them as gifts, or selling them on secondary market sites such as StubHub.
Kazemzadeh asserted that the new policy reduced competition by limiting the number of seasons passes on offer on competing websites, and driving sales and the concordant fees to the officially sanctioned ticket exchange.
The change in policy was implemented last year as a part of Ticketmaster's NFL Ticket Exchange website, which requires ticketholders to sell their tickets through the exchange until three days before the game.
Both the 49er organization and Ticket filed motions to dismiss the case in December, claiming that the plaintiffs failed to adequately allege harm to competition or to clearly stipulate what market had been harmed, the Courthouse News Service said.
On Monday, Kazemzadeh's attorney told the court that his client was dropping the case with prejudice. Class attorney Naomi Spector of Hyde & Swigart said she was prevented from discussing the resolution of the case, suggesting that there was a settlement agreement. – Staff Writers
