Taylor Swift fans are suing Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s parent company, following the pre-sale debacle last month for their “The Eras Tour” 2023.
According to court documents reviewed by TODAY, plaintiffs alleged breach of contract, intentional misrepresentation, fraud, fraudulent incentives, and multiple antitrust violations.
The plaintiffs are seeking a $2,500 fine against Ticketmaster for any violation of the Business and Professional Code, section 17200.
The lawsuit specifically referred to the “ticket sales disaster” that occurred on November 15 and 16 during the Verified Fan pre-sale, which caused the website to crash, and the Capital One pre-sale. In addition, the lawsuit cited the cancellation of the tour’s public ticket sale on November 18, which Ticketmaster described as “exceptionally high ticketing system requirements” and “insufficient remaining ticket inventory” to meet demand.
“Based on information and convictions, Ticketmaster implemented this anti-competitive system by forcing musician fans to use Ticketmaster exclusively for pre-sale and retail prices above a competitive market price,” the lawsuit states. “Ticketmaster has also forced participants to exclusively use Ticketmaster’s ‘Secondary Ticket Exchange’ — i.e. the platform that Ticketmaster operates for reselling concert tickets.”
The plaintiffs also allege that Ticketmaster “deliberately and deliberately misled ticket buyers” by allowing “scalpers and bots” access to pre-sale, providing more codes than the ticket allocation, and planning general ticket sales “knowing they would not have the required quantity” to meet demand.
“We believe both Taylor Swift and her fans were hurt by Ticketmaster,” Jennifer Kinder, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “Ticketmaster messed with the wrong fan base.”
Kinder noted that the petition has yet to be accepted by the court.
Swift and Live Nation Entertainment representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to Ticketmaster, 3.5 million fans had pre-registered for Swift’s Verified Fan program, the largest registration in its history. According to Ticketmaster, 2.4 million tickets were sold in advance.
“Even if high demand for sales offers is flawless from a technical point of view, many fans are left empty-handed,” said Ticketmaster. “For example, based on the traffic on our website, Taylor would have to perform over 900 stadium shows (almost 20 times the number of shows she plays)… that’s a stadium show every evening for the next 2.5 years.”
After general ticket sales were canceled by the company, Swift took to social media and shared a statement about her Instagram story.
“It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans,” Swift wrote. “It’s really difficult for me to trust these relationships and loyalties to an outside company, and it’s distressing for me to simply watch mistakes happen without having to resort to them.”
Ticketmaster also apologized to Swift and her fans on social media and in a statement to CNNBreakingNews.net last month.