Ill District Court: Online Listing Company Not Required to Collect and Remit Amusement Taxes on Ticket Sales

Holding:

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has held that defendant StubHub, Inc., an online listing company, was not required to collect and remit amusement taxes on tickets sold through its online listing service. In ruling against plaintiff City of Chicago (“City”), the district court reasoned that the 2005 amendment to the Ticket Sale and Resale Act explicitly discharged StubHub's state and local tax obligations. The district court wrote that StubHub was only required to put a prompt on its web site to warn ticket sellers of their obligation to pay the amusement tax and provide certain information if requested by municipal authorities. On the basis of the foregoing, the district court granted StubHub’s motion to dismiss.

Detailed Summary:

The issue in this case is whether StubHub is required by law to collect that amusement tax and pass it along to the City when such a sale occurs on its Internet auction listing site.

The City filed this lawsuit against StubHub seeking to collect the City’s 8% amusement tax on tickets to Chicago events that are sold through StubHub’s Internet listing service. The City also wanted to compel StubHub to provide it with information about the sales of tickets to Chicago events made on StubHub’s website from January 1, 2000 to the present.

StubHub is a venue which third parties…

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