A US federal judge has ruled that a ticket buyer agreed to StubHub’s arbitration terms when he clicked “Buy Now”, preventing him from pursuing his lawsuit in court or as a class action. The decision sends Louis Sanquini’s allegations against StubHub and CEO Eric Baker to private arbitration, although the judge has not assessed whether the underlying claims are valid.

The checkout page displayed a notice linking to StubHub’s user agreement, which prominently required US users to arbitrate claims individually unless they opted out. Judge Jed Rakoff found the notice reasonably conspicuous, noted that Sanquini did not deny clicking the button or claim to have opted out, and rejected his evidential objections. He also ruled that the arbitration clause was enforceable and covered Sanquini’s claims.