While the state attorney general’s (AG) office generally argues much larger issues like the Affordable Care Act, civic bans on legal marijuana sales and, more recently, immigration, Bob Ferguson is taking on a matter that the average Seattleite can relate to: Seahawks ticket scammers.
Ferguson, a Seattle native, announced on Wednesday, March 11, that he was filing a consumer-protection lawsuit against SBTickets.com L.L.C., which sold $149,000 worth of Super Bowl tickets in Washington state and failed to provide them. The majority of ticket buyers were notified only hours before the game, while only a select few who had paid the most got in.
The AG’s office had received 24 complaints about SBTickets, which promised tickets “100% guaranteed, no tricks or gimmicks.” It’s seeking other consumers who’ve encountered similar problems with SBTickets and other brokers.
As Ferguson noted in this press release, ticket buyers spent thousand of dollars not just on the tickets but for travel and lodging because of the rarity of attending such an event — with your home team playing, no less. To spend all that money, likely their savings, and travel all that way just to watch the game from a nearby bar is a more personal heartbreak than the Seahawks’ Super Bowl loss. While the Seahawks can try again next season, these ticket buyers wouldn’t see their money ever again without Ferguson’s lawsuit.
A lot happens in state government that many of us don’t understand or can’t even relate to because of the larger politics at play. But Ferguson’s move shows us that the state government does care about the “little people,” however relatively few there are in this particular case. Their votes will surely remember Ferguson’s actions come reelection time.