Taylor Swift fans in the US are suing Tickemaster following the recent controversy over ‘The Eras Tour’ tickets.
More than a dozen fans from 13 states submitted a lawsuit at Los Angeles County District Court on Friday (December 2), which alleges that Ticketmaster violated the California Cartwright Act and the California Unfair Competition Law during its “verified fan” pre-sale last month, according to Rolling Stone.
The plaintiffs have accused Live Nation – Ticketmaster’s parent company – of a host 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 “intentionally and purposefully mislead[ing] ticket purchasers by allowing scalpers and bots access to TaylorSwiftTix presale”.
The lawsuit also alleges that along with Ticketmaster controlling 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 that Ticketmaster gets additonal fees from every time the tickets are resold”.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation are yet to respond to the claims.
It comes just days after two US senators demanded answers from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding anti-bot laws, following the controversy surrounding Taylor Swift tickets.
They also highlighted bot-related problems surrounding ticket sales for Adele, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Blake Shelton.
Last month, Ticketmaster announced the cancellation of the general ticket sales for Swift’s 2023 North American tour due to “extraordinarily high demand” and “insufficient remaining ticket inventory”. It came after many customers experienced technical issues while attempting to access Ticketmaster’s pre-sale for ‘The Eras Tour’, including lengthy wait times and website outages.
Ticketmaster subsequently issued an apology to those who had a “terrible experience” in navigating its website, writing: “We strive to make ticket buying as easy as possible for fans.”
Swift herself responded to fans following the saga. “Well. It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans,” she began in a message via Instagram.
“We’ve been doing this for decades together and over the years, I’ve brought so many elements of my career in house. I’ve done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans’ experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do. It’s really difficult to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”
Read her full statement here.
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