The swifties (the official fandom name of singer Taylor Swift) have teamed up to take legal action against the ticketing giant ticketmaster, after collective disappointment in trying to pre-order and purchase tickets for The Eras TourTaylor’s sixth US concert tour.
A pre-sale system for verified fans who had to register in advance through the Tickermaster platform turned out to be a disaster. More than a million people lined up online for up to eight hours, and they could not buy seats, argues a lawsuit filed on Friday, December 2.
Ticketmaster Cancels Taylor Swift Tour Ticket Sales Provoking The Wrath Of The Swifties
More than two dozen Swift fans signed the complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, alleging breach of contract, willful misrepresentation, fraud, breach of trust and unfair competition.
The pre-sale, which was set for November 15 and 16, promised to avoid the inconvenience of being hindered by online purchases by bots. You had to register to receive a code that would allow you to make an early purchase. But customers say Ticketmaster misled them on purpose, allowing resellers and their bots access the process.
According to the document, the platform knew that it did not have enough tickets to meet the demand. One and a half million people with verified accounts entered to buy up to six tickets each for three dates. “He gave us codes when he didn’t have seats to comply with everyone,” the litigants’ document says, adding that another 14 million users who should not have had the code were able to enter even though it was an exclusive purchase window. The pre-sale debacle also led to the cancellation of the sale of normal passes that was set for November 15.
“Ticketmaster has agreed with the stadiums in each location of the Taylor Swift tour, and they are the places with the highest capacity for large concerts, ”adds the complaint filed by attorney Dennis B. Hill. “Since there are no other arenas that can hold that many people (…) Taylor and other musicians have no choice but to go to Ticketmaster. And with them, their fans.
Lawyer Jennifer Kinder, part of the complainants, argued that Ticketmaster would be benefiting from the scalping. she said to TMZ that when there are scalpers, a ticket can change hands up to three times, generating a lot of money. “A million and a half people came in to get tickets that they never had a chance to have, because scalpers asked for codes through bots, entered the system and bought large quantities of tickets in a matter of minutes”. And people lining up had to buy resold tickets, even with verified codes.
Taylor Swift fans are officially at war with Ticketmaster after filing a lawsuit over the “Eras” tour fiasco! We spoke with attorney @justcallkinder who said the Swifties are not willing to settle… they want to go to court! pic.twitter.com/vSwOFeFEIq
— TMZ Live (@TMZLive) December 7, 2022
Only this time Ticketmaster made the mistake of snubbing the swifties, whom Kinder described as a hard-working and organized group, who does not want to go to mediation or reach individual economic agreements, as the ticket office claims, but wants to be heard by a judge, in a hearing. Now there are 26 people, but Kinder assures that his objective is to add at least 300 more to sign the complaint.
“(The swifties) are not worried about tickets, they just want the system to change. If the government isn’t going to get involved, and Ticketmaster isn’t going to change their system, then the swifties are going to make the changes happen.” the lawyer stated. (AND)
Source: Eluniverso
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