By AMANDA BRONSTAD
Ticketmaster won a court victory last week in its ongoing dispute with Costa Mesa-based Tickets.com Inc.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2003 decision by a federal judge dismissing a counterclaim Tickets.com filed against Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster, a West Hollywood unit of IAC/InterActive Corp., originally filed suit against smaller Tickets.com for breach of contract and copyright violation.
The company alleged Tickets.com took details about entertainment events from Ticketmaster’s Web site for use on its own site. In 2000, a federal judge dismissed much of Ticketmaster’s suit. The company didn’t pursue the remaining claims.
But in a subsequent counterclaim, Tickets.com accused Ticketmaster of violating federal antitrust laws because of the average, roughly six-year length of Ticketmaster’s contracts, according to court documents.
“Tickets.com’s basic theory was that the exclusive contracts were too long to allow it to compete, and the 9th Circuit said, ‘No, there was ample opportunity to compete with contracts,'” said Steven Sletten, a partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP representing Ticketmaster.
Tickets.com got its start in 1996 and adopted its current name in 1999, during the Internet boom. The company had a tough time competing with Ticketmaster and eventually was delisted by Nasdaq.
Earlier this year, Major League Baseball’s Internet unit bought Tickets.com for about $66 million.
Bronstad is a staff writer with the Los Angeles Business Journal.
