Another lawsuit has been filed against Ticketmaster in the wake of the Taylor Swift concert ticket fiasco.
The federal class action lawsuit claims that “Ticketmaster [and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.] violated antitrust laws, and participated in anticompetitive and misleading conduct,” Pitchfork reports.
The company is also being accused of fraud, false advertising, price fixing, and misrepresentation.
The lawsuit, which represents 26 plaintiffs, hopes to win $2,500 per violation. It also asks that Ticketmaster be held responsible for attorney and legal fees.
“Ticketmaster intentionally and purposefully misled millions of fans into believing it would prevent bots and scalpers from participating in the presales,” court documents allege.
“However, millions of fans were unable to purchase tickets during the TaylorSwiftTix Presale and the Capital One Presale, due in large part to unprecedented website traffic caused by Ticketmaster allowing 14 million unverified Ticketmaster users and a ‘staggering’ number of bots to participate in the presales,” it continues.
The lawsuit adds, “By allowing primary ticket purchasers to resell tickets during the TaylorSwiftTix Presale, Ticketmaster represented that these tickets were being sold according to the face value prices negotiated by Taylor Swift Management when they were not.”
Earlier this month, a separate class action lawsuit was filed by a group of Swifties against Ticketmaster following the chaos.
The case argues that Ticketmaster didn’t do its due diligence to prevent unfair competition when the pre-sales began. It also claims frozen web pages, long queues, and ticket delays made it impossible for most fans to buy tickets.
“ The policy and spirit of the California antitrust laws are to promote the free play of competitive market forces and the lower prices to consumers that result,” the lawsuit argues.
It accuses Ticketmaster of “imposing agreements and policies at the retail and wholesale level that have prevented effective price competition across a wide swath of online ticket sales.”
The pre-sale for Taylor’s upcoming tour went on sale in November, but it quickly spiralled into chaos when the tickets sold out in record timing. Ticketmaster subsequently had to announce that there were no tickets left available for the public sale.
“Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled,” Ticketmaster said in a statement.
Not only were Taylor Swift fans angered by the situation, but the singer also released a statement expressing her disappointment. While many fans were left without tickets, they may walk away with a settlement if the pending court cases are successful.
Sources: Pitchfork, Rolling Stone,
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