Secondary marketplace SeatGeek has filed a $2 million lawsuit against ScoreBig and its CEO David Goldberg and Senior Finance Manager Tyler Honaker for their role in the ScoreBig crash.

“The nature of this action is for damages arising from Defendants’ failure to pay brokers for tickets for future events listed on SeatGeek’s platform and related fraudulent misrepresentations,” SeatGeek attorney Justin M. Sher wrote in a summons filed in New York court (read it here).

“ScoreBig has improperly failed to pay brokers for tickets for future events listed on SeatGeek’s platform. As a result of ScoreBig’s actions, brokers have and will continue to fail to fulfill orders for tickets for these events, to the detriment of users of SeatGeek’s platform,” the summons reads. “Moreover, ScoreBig, through its agents and officers including David Goldberg and Tyler Honaker, has exacerbated this problem by intentionally misrepresenting to SeatGeek that brokers’ fees for May, June, and July 2016 had been paid when in reality they had not been.”

Sher wrote that because of the misrepresentation, “SeatGeek continued to list ScoreBig’s tickets on SeatGeek’s platform and unwittingly increased its exposure to the risk of ticket orders not being fulfilled.”

SeatGeek is suing ScoreBig for breach of contract and promissory estoppel.

ScoreBig ceased operations late last month following a liquidity crisis that left hundreds of brokers unpaid for tickets sold on the site. Many brokers began to cancel tickets on unsuspecting customers to recover some of their losses, with many fans showing up to games and concerts only to find out their tickets didn’t work.

“My daughter and I were caught in the ScoreBig scam,” said Raiders fan Klein Elise who traveled to Nashville to watch her team play the Titans. When she attempted to scan the tickets at the gate, she was told the tickets had been invalidated.
“ScoreBig said they would refund both what my daughter paid for the tickets through ScoreBig and what I paid to replace them,” she said.
Did ScoreBig follow through with the refund, we asked?
“Nope! We’ve emailed several times asking them to make good on their promise and we were told several times it would be 10-14 business days. Now, radio silence,” she told Amplify.
To help prevent further cancellations, SeatGeek CEO Russell D’Souza offered to pay 50% of all unpaid orders for tickets sold through ScoreBig if brokers agreed not to cancel their tickets.

“We wish brokers didn’t have to choose between ruining a fan’s night and taking a financial hit,” D’Souza wrote in a letter to brokers. “We want to give sellers another option: out of pocket, SeatGeek will cover 50% of all unpaid orders for future events referred by SeatGeek. In return, we ask that ticket sellers deliver these tickets to consumers. And of course we request that sellers deliver tickets they were paid in full for. This does not waive a seller’s ability to recoup payment from ScoreBig.”

Dave Brooks
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Dave Brooks

Founder & Executive Editor at Amplify Media
Dave Brooks has over 15 years experience as a writer, including eight years as the Managing Editor of Venues Today. He started Amplify in 2014 to give the industry its own voice and turn up the volume on live entertainment.
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