Taylor Swift Fans File Another Lawsuit Against Ticketmaster Over Eras Tour Fiasco

Ticketmaster‘s botched sale for Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour has brought to light the issues surrounding live events and their stakeholders. Following a lawsuit filed earlier this month, a second group of disgruntled fans is now suing the company — this federal class action lawsuit alleges that they engaged in fraud, price fixing, anticompetitive behavior and “intentional misrepresentation,” among other things.
“Ticketmaster intentionally and purposefully misled millions of fans into believing it would prevent bots and scalpers from participating in the presales,” the lawsuit states. “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.”
Filed on December 20, in addition to their claims of antitrust violations by Ticketmaster, the 26 plaintiffs are alleging that Ticketmaster as well as its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, engaged in antitrust violations. In addition to legal fees, they are seeking a civil fine of $2,500.

The lawsuit also asserts the following: “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.”

After the first lawsuit was filed, Ticketmaster addressed the incident on social media along with a link to its website explaining the debacle in detail: “We want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans—especially those who had terrible experience trying to purchase tickets…We feel we owe it to everyone to share some information to help explain what happened.” (Pitchfork)

Last month, The New York Times reported that an antitrust investigation had been opened into Ticketmaster’s inner workings that “is focused on whether Live Nation Entertainment has abused its power over the multibillion-dollar live music industry.”

Karan Singh: I am an Indian American music journalist based in Los Angeles. My interests include (but aren't limited to) hip-hop, punk, rhythm & blues, rock and traditional world music. After working in the publishing industry as a copy editor for nearly three years, I decided to switch professions and become a writer. I have a bachelor's degree in English from UC Santa Cruz and a master's degree in Specialized Journalism from the University of Southern California. My aim as a writer is to explore the forces that energize creativity. I've always felt a natural pull toward the arts and entertainment space, and my stories seek to magnify the facets of its adjoining cultures.
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