BPOP Popular Inc

Ticket Center Files $45 Million Lawsuit Against Popular, Inc. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Popular, Inc., the 31st largest bank holding company in the U.S, and Banco Popular, Puerto Rico's largest banking institution, were recently sued in The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico for multiple banking and antitrust violations against vendors in the entertainment ticketing industry, particularly against Ticket Center. Ticket Center, Inc., Puerto Rico's leading ticketing service company, asks the court to enjoin defendants Popular, Inc. and/or Banco Popular from further engaging in antitrust violations and redress damages (trebled) for the amount of $45 million suffered by the plaintiff as a result of the defendants' unlawful conditioning of highly sought banking products, using the bank's overwhelming market power to force upon customers exclusive use of additional less-desired products and/or services, also available from other ticket vendors within a competitive market, to the detriment of competitors, such as the plaintiff. Ticket Center also seeks to prevent further unlawful monopolization attempts by defendants within the ticketing market in Puerto Rico. The lawsuit also asks the court to issue an order for the bank to divest from a recently awarded exclusive contract to operate the box office and retail ticket outlets of Puerto Rico's new premier arena, Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum (JMA Coliseum), inasmuch as this activity constitutes an unauthorized non-banking business activity conducted by Popular's ticketing department and/or service division, known as TicketPop. The exercise of such unauthorized non-banking business activity has also been alleged to be part of the attempted monopolization scheme. Ticket Center had independently challenged Popular's exclusive ticketing award at JMA Coliseum, which is currently subject of review by the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Among the "highly questionable" situations surrounding said award, Ticket Center alleges Popular's lack of legal capacity and/or authorization to conduct the non- banking services required by the request for proposal, as well as Popular's noncompliance with important factual requirements of the bid. Ticket Center's lawsuit also states that Popular, Inc. and/or Banco Popular play a dual role at JMA Coliseum, not only exclusively managing and operating the ticketing operation, but affording major sponsorship and advertisement funds as the displayed signs and publicity inside the 18,500-seat capacity venue suggest. Ticket Center claims Popular, Inc. and/or Banco Popular created and developed the TicketPop operation without the necessary government (state, federal and/or regulatory) permits and/or authorizations, working outside the legal scope of non-banking activities allowed to a bank and/or bank holding company. It also claims bank holding companies and/or U.S. banks are not allowed by law to operate a commercial ticketing service. Popular has been unable to produce any written authorization from the bank's regulators to operate TicketPop. By doing so, it is alleged that Popular Inc. violates Federal Reserve Board rules and the Bank Holding Company Act. The lawsuit also alleges that Popular received confidential and vital information from Ticket Center as a client and during the 1995 -- 2002 negotiations to set up an alliance to expand Ticket Center's network to dispense tickets through Popular's ATM Network. Ticket Center alleges that Popular's "illegal" actions, such as: antitrust, Sherman and Clayton Act violations, Bank Holding Company Act violations, tie-in arrangements, predatory pricing, exclusive dealings, controlling ticket inventory of major events and forcing customers to buy such tickets exclusively at TicketPop, have caused Ticket Center to lose business. It claims Popular's actions forced such ticketing companies as Casatron, Ticket Box, Ticket Print and Info-Line out of the market. For information and/or copy of the Antitrust Complaint, visit: http://www.tcpr.com/antitrust . Ticket Center, Inc. Alberto Grau Vice President (787) 717-5538 http://www.tcpr.com/ Casatron, Inc. Joe Constanzo President (787) 510-3821 Ticket Print, Inc. Felix Roman President (787) 640-8440 Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) Headquartered in San Juan, Popular is the 31st largest bank holding company in the U.S., and Puerto Rico's largest financial institution, with $36.4 billion in assets at December 31, 2003. In January 2003, the company announced that, under a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with U.S. authorities (U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve System, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Department of Treasury -- FinCEN) related to a money laundering investigation, it would forfeit $21.6 million to the U.S. DATASOURCE: Ticket Center, Inc. CONTACT: Alberto Grau, Vice President, Ticket Center, Inc., +1-787-717-5538, or ; or Joe Constanzo, President, Casatron, Inc., +1-787-510-3821; or Felix Roman, President, Ticket Print, Inc., +1-787-640-8440 Web site: http://www.tcpr.com/

Copyright