More than two dozen Taylor Swift fans are suing Ticketmaster

New York
CNN Business
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Don’t mess with Swifties.

More than two dozen Taylor Swift fans have sued the father of Ticketmaster Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. charged with “unlawful conduct” in pop star mess sale tour, Alleging that the ticket giant violated antitrust laws, among other things.

The lawsuit filed in California State Court On Friday, Ticketmaster and its parent company claimed it was anti-competitive, charging fans higher prices in the pre-sale, sale and resale market. Ticketmaster claims that it forces attendees to use its site exclusively and controls all registration and access to Swift’s “Eras Tour”.

The Swifties are seeking a $2,500 fine for each violation, which could add up, based on the millions of angry fans who didn’t receive tickets.

The suit also claimed that since Ticketmaster Having agreements with large venues on the tour, Swift “has no choice” but to work with Ticketmaster due to the size of her fan base. It also claims that Ticketmaster profits from the resale of tickets on the secondary market by adding a service fee to the exchange between fans.

According to the lawsuit, “Ticketmaster is a monopoly concerned only with taking every dollar it can from the captive public.”

Pre-sale tickets for the “Eras Tour” thwarted Swift’s fans across the country in a debacle that has been in the headlines for weeks. In November, a pre-sale code was sent to “Verified Fans” — but when sales started, the site was in such high demand that millions of Swifties couldn’t get a ticket. Pre-sale tickets for Capital One cardholders brought similar frustration – then Ticketmaster canceled sales to the public, Citing an “unusually high demand” and “Insufficient stock of remaining tickets”.

The suit alleges that the company “knowingly and knowingly misled TaylorSwiftTix pre-sale ticket holders by providing codes for 1.4 million “verified fans,” despite a seat shortage. More than two million tickets were sold on the first day of sales, Ticketmaster said. for her next tour – The most ever sold by an artist in one day.

“Millions of fans waited up to eight hours and were unable to purchase tickets as a result of inadequate ticketing,” the suit said. “Ticketmaster intentionally provided codes when it could not fulfill orders.”

The 26 Swifties suing the ticket company are located across the country, from Utah to North Carolina. CNN has reached out to Ticketmaster for comment. Jennifer Kinder, the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case, said she is awaiting acceptance by the case clerk.

In an honest post, Taylor Swift spoke about ticket “mistakes,” Writing on Instagram that there are “so many reasons why people have such a difficult time” getting tickets, and said the experience was “painful” for her to watch.

in a blog post which has since been taken down, Ticketmaster said its “certified fans” system, a mechanism intended to eliminate bots by giving out pre-sale codes to individuals, could not keep up with the overwhelming demand. Nearly 3.5 million people signed up to the program to buy tickets for Swift, which is her “largest enrollment in history”. Ticketmaster said that this unprecedented demand, combined with a “staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn’t have invite codes” drove “unprecedented traffic” to its site, essentially breaking it.

Ticket Master Swift and her fans have apologized As for the “terrible experience,” some tried to buy tickets and said they would “support our technology for the new custom-made bar” of Swift’s tour.

The ticketing debacle has angered many lawmakers, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, who wrote: An open letter to Ticketmaster’s CEO, saying she has “serious concerns” about the company’s operations.

In addition, the Department of Justice has opened an antitrust investigation into Live Nation, A source told CNN, To determine whether the company has a monopoly on the concert market, including the purchase of tickets.

Live Nation responded Saturday in a statement posted to its website, saying it “takes its responsibilities under antitrust laws very seriously” and “does not engage in conduct that could justify antitrust litigation, let alone orders that would require it to change essential business practices.” ”

— CNN’s Frank Pallotta and Jordan Valensky contributed to this report.