There are two issues: the theoretical legal position, and the practical legal position.
How it works in theory, at least in England: when you join a convention, you enter into a contract with the convention* by which you get admission to an event. The con promises, within reason, to run the event and to grant you admission. You implicitly promise not to behave in an unreasonable way. If you breach that then the con can terminate your membership and throw you out. If the con throws you out without good reason then it has breached the contract, but what remedy do you have?
That brings us on to the practical point. It doesn't matter what the legal position is if in fact there is little point in enforcing it. Lets say Special Snowflake is thrown out of ThingyCon. Special Snowflake may think he has been removed unjustly and that ThingyCon was in breach of contract. So Special Snowflake can pay £70, fill in a claim form online, get it served on the convention, and if the convention does not dispute the debt get an order for his membership to be refunded (plus the £70). If he is lucky he may get his other con-related expenses back but the court might not allow these. Or the convention might defend the claim, in which case Special Snowflake has to pay a £110 hearing fee and attend the small claims court (probably one local to ThingyCon) and persuade a judge he was unreasonably removed. If he loses - and let's face it, if the ThingyCon committee weren't daft then they will be able to come along and explain that Special Snowflake was ejected for a reason - then he gets no money and has to pay the expenses of ThingyCon's committee who attended.
In short, I consider the suggestion that a disgruntled fan would bring legal action against a con to be unlikely, because said fan will quickly discover how much hassle it is in proportion to what is likely to be recovered.
*Strictly, only if the convention is big enough to incorporate itself. For a smaller con the contract is with the committee.
no subject
How it works in theory, at least in England: when you join a convention, you enter into a contract with the convention* by which you get admission to an event. The con promises, within reason, to run the event and to grant you admission. You implicitly promise not to behave in an unreasonable way. If you breach that then the con can terminate your membership and throw you out. If the con throws you out without good reason then it has breached the contract, but what remedy do you have?
That brings us on to the practical point. It doesn't matter what the legal position is if in fact there is little point in enforcing it. Lets say Special Snowflake is thrown out of ThingyCon. Special Snowflake may think he has been removed unjustly and that ThingyCon was in breach of contract. So Special Snowflake can pay £70, fill in a claim form online, get it served on the convention, and if the convention does not dispute the debt get an order for his membership to be refunded (plus the £70). If he is lucky he may get his other con-related expenses back but the court might not allow these. Or the convention might defend the claim, in which case Special Snowflake has to pay a £110 hearing fee and attend the small claims court (probably one local to ThingyCon) and persuade a judge he was unreasonably removed. If he loses - and let's face it, if the ThingyCon committee weren't daft then they will be able to come along and explain that Special Snowflake was ejected for a reason - then he gets no money and has to pay the expenses of ThingyCon's committee who attended.
In short, I consider the suggestion that a disgruntled fan would bring legal action against a con to be unlikely, because said fan will quickly discover how much hassle it is in proportion to what is likely to be recovered.
*Strictly, only if the convention is big enough to incorporate itself. For a smaller con the contract is with the committee.