Judge rejects lawsuit against TicketSwap

A Dutch court has rejected a lawsuit filed by a techno music event organiser against price-capped resale platform TicketSwap.

Entertainment Business and Nieuws.nl report that Amsterdam-based Free Your Mind (FYM) sought to ban TicketSwap from trading and reselling tickets for its events, accusing the firm of misleading customers by offering tickets with its SecureSwap guarantee despite there being no cooperation agreement between the two companies.

“If a festival organiser does not cooperate, TicketSwap cannot offer safe tickets,” claimed FYM ahead of the ruling in Amsterdam District Court.

However, FYM’s lawsuit has been dismissed by a judge, in a move that has been welcomed by TicketSwap CEO Hans Ober.

“Creating a fair and safe platform for buying and reselling tickets is what we at TicketSwap have been committed to every day for 11 years,” says Ober. “We are therefore pleased with the judge’s ruling, which shows that consumers should be able to resell their tickets.”

“We knew there was a chance that the judge would reject it, but we are happy with the discussion that has started”

Launched in 2012, Amsterdam-headquartered TicketSwap has attracted upwards of nine million users active in 36 countries worldwide.

It collaborates directly with event organisers to offer verified SecureSwap tickets on its platform, which makes the seller’s original ticket invalid while the buyer receives a completely new and unique ticket. But FYM says it does not work with TicketSwap and indicated it may yet pursue its complaint further.

“We knew there was a chance that the judge would reject it, but we are happy with the discussion that has started,” says a statement.

The judge also threw out a counter-claim by TicketSwap, which called on Free Your Mind to stop making negative statements against the company, saying it fell under freedom of expression.

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