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StubHub requests racketeering lawsuit dismissal

StubHub is asking a US federal judge to throw out a lawsuit accusing it of racketeering.

Spotlight Ticket Management filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California West Division in December against the ticket resale website and Awin Global Affiliate Network alleging common fraud, tortious interference, violation of the federal RICO statute, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and violation of California law.

In response, StubHub has now filed a motion claiming Spotlight’s lawsuit “contorts a straightforward business dispute into a sprawling 344 paragraphs including unsupported claims under the RICO statute.” It asked Judge Percy Anderson to dismiss the complaint with prejudice.

Spotlight, which licenses software and ticket platforms used by American Express, claims that the secondary ticketing giant and its affiliate Awin Inc, violated federal and state law.

The initial lawsuit claims StubHub has been involved in a “years-long campaign” to “under report and misrepresent commissionable transactions” owed to its affiliate network.

Spotlight claims that it directed more than $84m in sales to StubHub, which it says in the suit “accounts for the business of tens of thousands of consumers that, without Spotlight’s involvement, would have been directed to sales channels other than StubHub.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the secondary ticketing site interfered with Spotlight’s contract with American Express.

StubHub said in the motion to dismiss that Spotlight’s claims should be dismissed for a lack of specific details, such as “alleging any facts to identify what commissions it purportedly did not receive, what market share it purportedly lost and whether the AmEx relationship actually changed as a direct and proximate result of this scheme.”

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