Taylor Swift fans in the US have sued Tickemaster following the recent controversy over “The Eras Tour” tickets.
More than a dozen fans from 13 states filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County District Court on Friday (Dec. 2), alleging that Ticketmaster violated California’s Cartwright Act and California’s Unfair Competition Law during its “verified fan” presale this month. spent, Rolling. Stone reports.
The plaintiffs accused Live Nation – Ticketmaster’s parent company – of a series of allegations including fraud, price fixing and antitrust violations.
“Millions of fans waited up to eight hours and were unable to purchase tickets,” according to the lawsuit, which also accused the ticket giant of “deliberately misleading ticket buyers and intentionally by allowing scalpers and bots to access TaylorSwiftTix Pre-Sale”.
The lawsuit also alleges that in addition to Ticketmaster’s control of the primary ticket market, its expansion into the secondary market along with the company’s agreements with stadiums “force fans to buy more expensive tickets from which Ticketmaster earns additional commissions .” every time tickets are resold. “.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation have yet to respond to the claims.
It comes just a few days after two US senators demanded answers from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding anti-robot laws, following the controversy sparked by Taylor Swift’s entries.
They also drew attention to the issues of loot related to ticket sales for Adele, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Blake Shelton.
Last month, Ticketmaster announced that general ticket sales for Swift’s 2023 North American tour would be canceled due to “extremely high demand” and “insufficient inventory of remaining tickets.” This comes after many customers experienced technical issues trying to access the Ticketmaster pre-sale for ‘The Eras Tour’, including long waiting times and website outages.
Ticketmaster later issued an apology to those who had a “terrible experience” browsing its website, writing: “We strive to make ticket purchasing as easy as possible for fans.”
Swift herself responded to fans after the saga. “Well. It goes without saying that I am extremely protective of my fans,” she began in a message via Instagram.
“We’ve been doing this together for years, and over the years I’ve brought home many elements from my career. I’ve done it specifically to improve the quality of my fan experience by doing it myself with my team, It’s really hard to trust an external entity with these relationships and loyalties, and it’s really interesting for me to watch mistakes that happen without any recourse to the person.”
Read his full statement here.
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