Company Loses Suit After Hannah Montana Pittsburgh Concert Controversy

Mellon Arena Tickets Sold Out Quickly, Frustrating Singer's Fans

POSTED: 3:53 pm EDT August 13, 2008

UPDATED: 4:09 pm EDT August 13, 2008

PITTSBURGH -- When a Hannah Montana concert sold out within minutes, some people accused a downtown company of creating a computer program that allowed scalpers to buy tickets on the Internet before other people could get them.

Call 4 Action reporter Aaron Saykin said the company -- RMG Technologies -- has lost a big lawsuit and appears to be in trouble, if not out of business.

It turns out that Ticketmaster, which handled sales for the January concert at Mellon Arena and thousands of other shows, had been suing the company in California, accusing it of creating software that allows scalpers to cut in front of everyone else when buying tickets online.

Federal court records show RMG has lost the lawsuit and must pay Ticketmaster more than $18 million.

U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins also ordered RMG to stop doing whatever it was doing that helped some buyers get tickets more easily from Ticketmaster.

Last fall, the company's owner denied any manipulation with Hannah Montana ticket sales, telling Call 4 Action that "it really appears to be a supply and demand problem with Ticketmaster."

Call 4 Action was unable to reach RMG president Cipriano Garibay for comment Wednesday, but he told WTAE Channel 4's news exchange partners at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he lost the lawsuit because he ran out of money to defend it.

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