No one is immune to the wrath of a scorned Swiftie—not even a giant company like Ticketmaster. Taylor Swift fans are suing Ticketmaster and its Los Angeles parent company Live Nation Entertainment for mishandling pre-sales for the Eras tour, Taylor Swift's first tour in five years. In a lawsuit filed Dec. 2 in Los Angeles County District Court, 26 Swifties (yes, that's Swift's lucky number) from 13 states accuse Ticketmaster of violating California's Cartwright Act and unfair competition laws, saying Eras The Tour debacle was a "ticket sales disaster." "Since the lawsuit was filed, the number of Swifties involved in the lawsuit has grown to more than 300.
According to documents obtained by Deadline, fans claim that the site "allowed scalpers and bots to enter the TaylorSwiftTix pre-sale" and "intentionally and purposefully" misled hopeful ticket buyers. The lawsuit outlines how Swift was effectively forced to work with Ticketmaster to sell Eras Tour tickets because she had to perform at the largest stadiums in the U.S. to meet demand, most of which have exclusive agreements with Ticketmaster, and accuses them of Take advantage of this location. The plaintiffs also accuse the site of forcing venues to use its platform to resell tickets, driving up ticket values on the secondary market, with some tickets selling for as much as $30,000 on StubHub.
The Swifties filed suit against Ticketmaster in court on March 27, and the plaintiffs were told that Ticketmaster wanted to file a motion to compel arbitration, which would force them to settle out of court. Lawyers for the Swifts have until May 12 to file a motion to prevent that from happening. While fans are calling for the company to fine each person $2,500, they insist the case is about much more than money. "Hopefully in 10 years they'll look back and say this was a turning point," fan Penny Harrison told CNN. "This is when competition increases and fares come down."
Some of the plaintiffs attended the Los Angeles hearing in person and explained to BuzzFeed why the case is so important to them. "By cracking down on this, we're trying to break a precedent that could become a monopoly across the entire industry," Los Angeles fan Kiley Krzyzek said. "To me, it's not about whether you got a ticket or not. To the ticket issue. It's about how this company is allowed to continue to operate in a way that hurts the average American consumer," Denver fan Joe Akmakjian added. “Ticketmaster controls the live entertainment industry.”
While fans who couldn't get tickets were disappointed, no one was more "angry" about the disaster than Swift. "It's really hard for me to trust an outside entity" for her fans, she wrote on Instagram Stories, hinting that working with Ticketmaster wasn't her first choice without naming her directly. "There are a number of reasons why people are struggling to get tickets and I'm working hard to work out how to improve the situation in the future. I'm not going to make excuses for anyone as we've asked multiple times if they can meet the demand and we're sure they can ”
Ticketmaster's Eras Tour Taylor Swift Tix pre-sale, operated by its Verified Fan program, began on November 15, with fans who received pre-sale access codes experiencing ongoing website outages and hours-long virtual queues. To try and buy tickets. The site was forced to postpone the CapitalOne cardholder pre-sale to the next day, which still resulted in similar issues that led to them outright canceling their general ticket sale scheduled for November 18th, citing "challenges to the ticketing system." The requirements are extremely high, and the remaining quantities are insufficient.” Ticket inventory can meet this need. "
In response to Swift, Ticketmaster personally apologized to her and her fans and wrote an entire blog post explaining how their system went wrong. Ticketmaster has yet to respond to the lawsuit and has not indicated what they will do with their remaining limited inventory of Eras Tour tickets. "We're working hard to enhance our technology to meet the new standards set by the demands of Taylor Swift | Taylor Swift's Eras Tour," the company wrote. "Once we have resolved this issue, if there are any next steps, we will share an update accordingly."
