PlayerAuctions Says ESA Discussed ‘Potential Litigation’ With Take-Two in 2018, Wants the Trade Group’s Files
- PlayerAuctions, the marketplace Take-Two is suing over Grand Theft Auto Online accounts and currency, says a Take-Two privilege log shows the GTA publisher and the Entertainment Software Association…
- The claim is in a motion to compel filed on October 27, 2026, in federal court in Washington, D.C.
- What follows about the ESA's conduct is PlayerAuctions' account; the court has made no finding on it.
PlayerAuctions, the marketplace Take-Two is suing over Grand Theft Auto Online accounts and currency, says a Take-Two privilege log shows the GTA publisher and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) communicating about “potential litigation” against it as early as September 6, 2018. It now wants a federal judge to make the video game trade group hand over its files.
The claim is in a motion to compel filed on October 27, 2026, in federal court in Washington, D.C. (In re Subpoena to Entertainment Software Association, No. 1:26-mc-00153). PlayerAuctions says the ESA was served with its subpoena in June and that its first production, on August 22, was “a tiny handful” of documents. It asks the court to overrule the ESA’s objections, order full compliance and hold the group in contempt.
What follows about the ESA’s conduct is PlayerAuctions’ account; the court has made no finding on it. The public docket, as mirrored by CourtListener on November 8, shows no ESA reply to the motion’s arguments. Its only filings are a notice of appearance and a motion to transfer, both on November 4.
The GTA Online lawsuit behind it
Take-Two sued PlayerAuctions and two related companies on March 4, 2025, in federal court in Los Angeles (No. 2:25-cv-01880). Its amended complaint claims copyright and trademark infringement, false designation of origin and interference with contractual relations. It says the site lists “heavily modified player accounts, in-game assets, and virtual currency” for GTA V.
PlayerAuctions denies the claims and counterclaims that Take-Two misused takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In August 2025, Judge Otis D. Wright II dismissed the interference claim with leave to amend and let the rest go forward. In March 2026, he refused to dismiss the counterclaim. A jury trial is set for April 6, 2027.
The lawsuit was covered when filed, including by PC Gamer. Our November 8 searches found no coverage of the PlayerAuctions subpoena fight with the ESA.
Why a trade group’s files matter to the case
PlayerAuctions wants to show that the ESA, and through it Take-Two, knew about the site years before the lawsuit. That would support its statute-of-limitations defense, the deadline for bringing a claim, along with waiver, acquiescence and estoppel. The motion argues the clock can start when a company had enough information to look into a problem.
According to the motion, Take-Two’s verified interrogatory answers, which a court ordered it to give, say it learned of PlayerAuctions through the ESA’s “Notorious Markets” reports from 2020 to 2023. PlayerAuctions says it found ESA reports from 2018 and 2019 that already named it as an “unauthorized online marketplace.” Take-Two’s own complaint twice says GTA V came out in 2013.
The September 2018 date comes from a privilege log, a list of documents a party withholds as legally protected, that the motion says Take-Two provided recently. The ESA’s website lists Take-Two Interactive among its members.
What the ESA has told Washington about PlayerAuctions
Game Empress read the ESA’s public submissions to the U.S. Trade Representative that we could open. The November 8, 2020 letter lists playerauctions.com under “Unauthorized Online Marketplaces.” It says the site let users sell in-game currency, items, skins, accounts, CD keys and power-leveling for over 200 ESA member titles, and that it had an estimated 1.825 million visits over six months.
The October 7, 2022 letter repeats the listing, citing more than 2 million registered traders and an estimated 752,680 organic visits a month. The group’s October 7, 2026 letter, filed while this subpoena dispute was under way, still names playerauctions.com among “other notorious unauthorized digital goods marketplaces.” That same letter asked for Cronus Zen to be added to the government’s piracy watchlist.
Takedown notices sent in the ESA’s name
The motion says the ESA has kept sending PlayerAuctions DMCA takedown notices during the case, including one on September 20, 2026, through its partner MarkScan. PlayerAuctions notes that the notice names “Rockstar Games” as the copyright owner, while Take-Two says in the lawsuit that it, not Rockstar, owns the copyright. The notice is attached to a declaration that is not available on CourtListener.
An earlier notice is public. An August 25 filing in the Los Angeles case attaches an August 20, 2026 MarkScan email, which says the ESA authorized it and lists 93 NBA 2K26 account listings with “2K” as the copyright owner. In its brief, PlayerAuctions called it “yet another baseless DMCA takedown notice” from Take-Two’s agent, the ESA.
Nineteen requests and months of talks
The subpoena seeks records on the ESA’s knowledge of PlayerAuctions, its authority to act for Take-Two, GTA and its terms of service, and similar marketplaces. According to the motion, the ESA refused to search at all for six of the 19 requests. For 11 others, it limited the time frame to January 1, 2020, onward and/or refused to produce documents “shared between ESA and Take-Two.” It agreed to search on two.
PlayerAuctions says the ESA objected to every request on relevance, burden and privilege grounds, including a “common interest” with Take-Two, without giving a privilege log. The production held spreadsheets, a few duplicate MarkScan emails and slide decks dated by month but not year, the motion says.
| Date | Event, as stated in the record |
|---|---|
| Sept. 6, 2018 | Earliest Take-Two and ESA “potential litigation” communication cited from Take-Two’s privilege log (per the motion) |
| March 4, 2025 | Take-Two files suit in Los Angeles |
| June 9 and 11, 2026 | Subpoena issued, then served |
| July 10, 2026 | ESA objects, produces no documents |
| Aug. 20, 2026 | MarkScan notice for the ESA on 93 NBA 2K26 listings |
| Aug. 22, 2026 | ESA’s first production |
| Sept. 20, 2026 | MarkScan notice naming “Rockstar Games” (per the motion) |
| Oct. 27, 2026 | Motion to compel filed in Washington, D.C. |
| Nov. 4, 2026 | ESA lawyer appears and moves to transfer |
| Nov. 6, 2026 | Order transferring the case |
| April 6, 2027 | Jury trial date in Take-Two v. PlayerAuctions |
A transfer, but to where?
The ESA’s lawyer, Kimberly Paschall of Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila, asked Judge Loren L. AliKhan to transfer the case on November 4. The November 6 docket entry reads “Order Transferring Case.” Neither the order nor the ESA’s motion is on CourtListener, so the record we reviewed does not show where it went, or why.
Federal Rule 45(f) lets the court where documents are due send a subpoena fight to the court that issued the subpoena, which is the court hearing the main case, here the Central District of California. It can do so if the subpoenaed party consents or the judge finds exceptional circumstances. After a transfer, the issuing court can also hold a party in contempt.
In Los Angeles, where Magistrate Judge John D. Early has handled discovery fights, the docket as mirrored on CourtListener on November 8 had no entry after November 5.
Featured image: First page of PlayerAuctions’ motion to compel, filed October 27, 2026, in federal court in Washington, D.C. (Screenshot: Game Empress / CourtListener)