Wednesday, February 09, 2011

The NFL and Fraud

Many people are having fun with the NFL trying to make some sort of restitution to the 400 people who were sold tickets to seats that did not exist for the Super Bowl. I have to wonder if the NFL is trying to be so accommodating because they are afraid of a lawsuit or worse. I can't hep wondering if what the NFL did was criminal.

It seems to me that what happened to those 400 people seems to fit the definition of all sorts of fraud; wire fraud, bait and switch, and false advertising just off the top of my head. According to Wikipedia:
Common law fraud has nine elements:
a representation of an existing fact;
its materiality;
its falsity;
the speaker's knowledge of its falsity;
the speaker's intent that it shall be acted upon by the plaintiff;
plaintiff's ignorance of its falsity;
plaintiff's reliance on the truth of the representation;
plaintiff's right to rely upon it; and
consequent damages suffered by plaintiff.
Am I wrong or did what the NFL did to those 400 people meet all 9 criteria?

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