Taylor Swift fans to file lawsuit against Ticketmaster over 'The Eras' tour ticket debacle: report
Ticketmaster faced backlash in November for its ticket rollout for Taylor Swift's upcoming tour, "The Eras."
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- Taylor Swift fans will file a lawsuit against Ticketmaster over its recent ticket rollout.
- The lawsuit accused Ticketmaster of fraud, antitrust violations, and price-fixing.
- Ticketmaster faced backlash after Swifties struggled buying tickets in November for "The Eras" tour.
Fans of Taylor Swift will file a lawsuit against Ticketmaster over its chaotic ticket rollout for her upcoming tour.
Deadline and TMZ reported on Saturday that more than 20 Swifties took legal action against Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation Entertainment. The lawsuit was obtained and shared by Deadline.
The lawsuit accused Ticketmaster of "fraud, price-fixing, and antitrust violations." The lawsuit also accused Ticketmaster of "intentional deception" that allowed scalpers and bots to snag the majority of tickets for "The Eras" tour.
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"For years, scalpers have been a problem in the secondary market. Ticketmaster has stated that it has taken steps to address the issue, but in reality, has taken steps to make additional profit from the scalped tickets," the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit alleged that Ticketmaster controls the primary ticket sales market and part, if not all, of the secondary market.
"Ticketmaster claimed that only those with codes would be able to join the presale, but millions of buyers without codes were able to get tickets," the lawsuit reads. "Many of those without codes were scalpers, and Ticketmaster benefited from scalped tickets as they must be resold on Ticketmaster, who gets an additional fee."
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The lawsuit alleged that even if Ticketmaster hadn't intentionally colluded about the ticket sale, they were unprepared for the demand. The plaintiffs have requested Ticketmaster face a fine of $2,500 per violation.
Representatives for Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
In November, Swifties blasted Ticketmaster after encountering long lines and system outages while attempting to buy tickets for Swift's tour. Ticketmaster later canceled ticket sales, citing "extraordinarily high demands" and "insufficient remaining ticket inventory." Ticketmaster said in a statement that Swift sold 2 million tickets at that time.
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Swift called out Ticketmaster on her Instagram Stories following the online backlash, saying the situation "really pisses me off."
"I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could," Swift wrote. "It really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them."
Ticketmaster issued an official apology to Swift and her fans soon after.
—Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 19, 2022
However, Ticketmaster is still dealing with the fallout. On November 30, a group of Swifties demanded that the Federal Trade Commission investigate Ticketmaster for "predatory" and "misleading" tactics.
In November, The New York Times reported that the US Department of Justice is investigating Live Nation Entertainment over potential abuse of power in the music industry and antitrust concerns. The investigation into Live Nation Entertainment began before The Era's tour ticket sales, the outlet reported.