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Days after Ticketmaster crashed during the sale of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets, over 20 people are suing the website. The Swifties, or as Taylor Swift fans are popularly called, are seeking restitution for Ticketmaster “allowing bots and scalpers to royally screw up the November 15 presale event", according to TMZ.
Ticketmaster had a Verified Fan system for Taylor Swift’s tour tickets, which would have prevented the resale of tickets on third-party websites, thereby giving access to only registered fans. However, Swift's Tour tickets were also listed on resale sites like Stubhub for over $20,000, as per reports.
Taylor Swift fans are suing Ticketmaster for deception
The affected fans are also suing the company for “ill-gotten gains” that it reportedly amassed during the presale. They are demanding a fine of $2500 per violation.
Reports citing the lawsuit also noted that the fans have accused Ticketmaster of “intentional deception” and have alleged that Ticketmaster allowed scalpers to access the presale. Fans suing Ticketmaster have also claimed that the company dominates the primary and secondary ticketing market, and have accused the company of double-dipping the ticketing fees sold by scalpers.
As per reports, resale tickets for Taylor Swift's concert are going as high as $30,000 for some cities including Las Vegas, Texas, and Arizona among others. The original price range for the tickets was $49 to $499.
Last month, various consumer groups and political figures pointed out the issues with Ticketmaster.
A consumer group called Break Up Ticketmaster demanded the justice department to break the merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster. It's landing page reads:
"They’re hiking up ticket prices, charging rip-off junk fees, and exploiting artists, independent venues, and fans."
A political figure and congressman, David N. Cicillie, in a tweet pointed out the wait times to get hold of Taylor Swift tickets. He wrote:
"Ticketmaster's excessive wait times and fees are completely unacceptable, as seen with today's @taylorswift13 tickets, and are a symptom of a larger problem. It's no secret that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is an unchecked monopoly."
Ticketmaster already faces antitrust investigation from the US Justice Department
Last month, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti started an antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster's handling of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. Shortly after the website crashed, leaving millions of people, who were trying to purchase the tickets upset, Skrmetti in a statement said:
“As an industry player, you would think Ticketmaster would be prepared. Because they have a dominant position, they may have thought they didn’t need to worry about that. This could be an indicator that there’s not enough competition in the market.”
Skrmetti had also pointed out the issue of scalping, when he said:
"Some scalpers are reselling tickets through Ticketmaster for thousands of dollars."
The US Justice department is investigating if Live Nation Entertainment holds a monopoly over the multi-billion dollar industry.
After the debacle, Taylor Swift weighed in on the issue. She took to Instagram and wrote:
“It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse."
She further added, noting:
"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. It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”
According to The Guardian, shortly after the presale went live, fans reported that they waited in online queues for hours with some even complaining that they missed out on purchasing tickets that cost between $49 and $449.
The presales for Taylor Swift's tour were available from November 15 causing Ticketmaster to crash over 5,000 times by 2.00 pm PST that day. Ticketmaster has since apologised to Swift and her fans for the ticketing chaos.
