26 Taylor Swift fans have sued Ticketmaster after thousands of fans were unable to get tickets, and with ticket prices skyrocketing on the black market.
The fans want Ticketmaster to pay dearly for, in their estimation, allowing bots and scalpers to royally screw up the November 15 presale event.
The complaint — filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court of California, where Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation is located — alleges Ticketmaster violated the California Cartwright Act and the California Unfair Competition Law during its presale to “verified” fans on Nov. 15 and 16
Millions of fans had to wait hours in a digital “lineup” in hopes of scoring seats — but the vast majority of them never even got a sniff of a single ticket.
According to docs, Ticketmaster was supposed to send “verified” Taylor Swift fans a code on Nov. 14, which would allow them access to the presale event — but the angry fans say thousands of them either didn’t get a code, or were sent malfunctioning codes.
The 26 plaintiffs accuse Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. — Ticketmaster’s parent company — and Does 1 to 100, of “fraud, price-fixing, and antitrust violations” and of “intentional deception.”
Taylor herself called out Ticketmaster for this issue, saying the company had reassured her and her team they could handle the volume of fans.
Ticketmaster apologized to Swift and her fans in a statement released on Nov. 18, claiming it didn’t anticipate the flood of fans who would participate through the Verified Fan program.
