Change In ADR Provider at Issue In Event-Ticketing Fees Litigation

But in the Heckman complaint, the plaintiffs' lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and the Chicago-based Keller Lenkner noted that while the companies' motion to compel arbitration was pending last summer, Ticketmaster changed its ticket-purchase terms of use. As of July 2, rather than routing arbitrations to established alternative-dispute-resolution (ADR) provider JAMS, Ticketmaster designated New Era ADR, an online startup based in Chicago, as the forum for disputes with consumers. The plaintiffs in the newly filed suit put forth the same antitrust claims as in the Oberstein suit, while challenging the consumer arbitration agreement by claiming New Era ADR's protocols for mass arbitrations, laid out in the rules and procedures posted to its website, require "a novel and one-sided process that is tailored to disadvantage consumers."

New Era ADR, which launched during the pandemic in April 2021, is a digital platform which offers businesses a subscription model for arbitration fees. New Era seeks to resolve disputes "efficiently and cost-effectively" without getting "bogged down in decades of protocols and procedures, built to allow for every minor argument," like other ADR providers, according to New Era's website. An example provided on its website calculates that 100 mass arbitration cases at $10,000 per case fee would cost clients around $1 million. However, under a sample $250,000 New Era annual subscription fee, the ADR provider would only tack on an additional $300 per case filing, bringing the total up to $280,000.