Taylor Swift fans score key victory in Ticketmaster lawsuit
Taylor Swift fans have scored a key victory over Ticketmaster in a current lawsuit, which centres on Ticketmaster’s sale of the Eras Tour tickets in 2022.
The lawsuit was the first in a series of cases filed on behalf of Swift’s fans. The update comes after a previous version of the complaint was dismissed in May as legally deficient.
However, on November 24th, a California federal judge said that the revised claims against Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation are now strong enough.
The lawsuit, on behalf of 357 Swift fans, claims that the monopoly held by Ticketmaster and Live Nation has shut out any other competition. Thereby, the two companies are afforded the space to operate an increasingly shoddy sales platform.
It was this context that led to a “massive disaster” when Ticketmaster crashed amid overwhelming traffic from bots and scalpers during the Eras Tour presale. Subsequently, this prevented many fans from having the chance to buy face-value tickets.
However, in response, Ticketmaster argued that Swift fans should not rely on the US government’s antitrust suit for their monopoly claims. They say that the Department of Justice’s case focuses on Live Nation’s deals with arenas and amphitheatres rather than the stadiums where Swift performed her Eras Tour.
Nevertheless, the ruling on November 24th rejected their counterargument. As per Billboard, US District Judge George H Wu wrote, “None of these allegations clearly indicate that the government action excludes conduct related to stadiums.”
He continued, “Furthermore, while noticeably absent from the [complaint] is the word ‘stadium,’ the court fails to see any meaningful distinction between arenas, amphitheatres, and stadiums that would render baseless plaintiffs’ reliance on the government action.”
As a result, Judge Wu is thus allowing the antitrust claims to move forward into evidence discovery.
Ticketmaster has been at the heart of many conflicts as of late. Olivia Dean lashed out at the company during the sale of US tickets for her recent tour. She wrote online, “[Ticketmaster], [Live Nation], [AEG]: You are providing a disgusting service. The prices at which you’re allowing tickets to be re-sold is vile and completely against our wishes.”
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