A group of Taylor Swift fans have filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster after they were unable to purchase tickets for her tour. In a lawsuit submitted to a California court, fans accuse Live Nation of anticompetitive conduct that resulted in higher ticket prices for the fans who could actually get their hands on them.
The suit claims that fans are forced to use the service to purchase tickets above what a competitive market price would be. The company adds a service fee to each ticket sold on its fan-to-fan exchange but doesn't specify how much is paid by the buyer. The lawsuit claims that the stadiums have a plan to force fans to buy more expensive tickets to make up for the lost revenue from resales.
Fans had to use pre-sale codes to purchase tickets, and that's something it takes issue with. The company lied to TaylorSwiftTix ticketholders when it said it had enough seats to sell the tickets, according to the lawsuit. 3.5 million people pre-registered as Verified Fans to gain access to the sale, but it had to place 2 million of them on a waiting list for a chance to pick up any remaining tickets.
Fans were unable to purchase tickets due to insufficient ticket releases.
Millions of fans were unable to purchase tickets due to insufficient ticket releases. When it couldn't satisfy demands, theTicketmaster gave codes.
The complaint seeks $2,500 per violation, which may not seem like much but could add up to a huge fine with the millions of people who tried to purchase tickets for Swift's tour. The case hasn't yet been accepted by the court, but it should be on Monday, according to one of the lawyers. The Verge tried to get in touch with Ticketmaster, but they didn't reply.
During the pre-sale for Swift's upcoming tour, the site crashed due tohistorically unprecedented demand. The whole situation forced Ticketmaster to delay some of its pre-sale activities until it sold out of tickets. Swift was upset that fans felt like they had to go through bear attacks just to get tickets to her shows.
The lack of competition in the ticketing industry caught the attention of the lawmakers, who are holding a hearing to look into it. The New York Times reported that the Department of Justice is looking into Live Nation. The merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster should have never been approved according to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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