The New England Patriots have won a court case against online ticket reseller StubHub and have obtained the names of 13,000 people who have bought or sold tickets using the site. The Patriots said they could revoke the season tickets of people who used the site.
In the suit against StubHub, which is owned by Ebay the Patriots maintain that the site allows fans to break state law and violate team policies. Team rules prohibit reselling game tickets for a profit.
StubHub began contacting the 13,000 customers yesterday to tell them that their personal information had been turned over to the Patriots after a ruling by Superior Court Judge Allan van Gestel.
“We take the privacy of our customers very seriously, so we made every effort to appeal this ruling. Unfortunately, our appeals were not successful,” StubHub said in an e-mail to the customers according to the Boston Globe.
In the ruling Judge van Gestel wrote, “The Patriots have said that they intend to use the identities of the purchasers and sellers not only for this case, but also for its own other allegedly legitimate uses, such as canceling season tickets of ‘violators’ or reporting to authorities those customers that they deem to be in violation of the Massachusetts antiscalping law.”
Tickets for some Patriots games are selling on StubHub far above face value. Tickets that the team originally sold for $125 are now selling for $650 on StubHub. Standing room tickets, which were $49, are for sale for $120 to $150.
A lawyer for the Patriots would not say what the team would do with the 13,000 names that StubHub turned over according to the AP. The Center for Democracy and Technology, an advocacy group, said the court ruling infringes on the rights of Patriots fans.
