Taylor Swift Fans Sue Ticketmaster for Price Gouging

The debacle led to a proceeding in the US Senate connected consolidation successful the ticketing industry. In May, the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit seeking to interruption up Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which it accused of abusing their alleged ticketing monopoly to trample competitors.

In a connection provided to WIRED astatine the time, Live Nation disputed the claim. “The DOJ's suit won't lick the issues fans attraction astir relating to summons prices, work fees, and entree to in-demand shows,” the institution wrote. “Calling Ticketmaster a monopoly whitethorn beryllium a PR triumph for the DOJ successful the abbreviated term, but it volition suffer successful tribunal due to the fact that it ignores the basal economics of unrecorded entertainment, specified arsenic the information that the bulk of work fees spell to venues, and that contention has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s marketplace stock and nett margin.”

The archetypal suit brought by the Swift fans accused Ticketmaster and Live Nation of breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation, and antitrust violations. The ailment alleges that Ticketmaster broke its committedness to marque tickets disposable to fans who qualified for the presale. Meanwhile, by entering into exclusivity contracts with ample venues and forcing fans to resell tickets done its ain resale marketplace, the suit claims, Ticketmaster established a monopoly that it wields to inflate summons prices for its ain fiscal gain.

“This lawsuit concerns the anticompetitive behaviour of Ticketmaster, to enforce higher prices connected euphony performance attendees successful the presale, sale, and resale market,” the ailment states. “Ticketmaster has effectuated this anticompetitive strategy by forcing fans of musicians to exclusively usage Ticketmaster for presale and income prices, which are supra what a competitory marketplace terms would be.”

The caller suit is near-identical to the archetypal national case, but expands the scope to see fans of artists different than Taylor Swift and adds an alleged RICO usurpation to the list. The caller allegation hinges connected the premise that Ticketmaster and Live Nation coordinate with spouse organizations to exert marketplace dominance and compression consumers, successful a mode that meets the explanation of an “enterprise” nether the RICO act.

“Live Nation and Ticketmaster exploit the narration betwixt themselves and with stadium venues mostly owned by Live Nation to execute the intent of their enterprise, and person been doing truthful ever since the Department of Justice ill-advisedly approved their merger astir a decennary and a fractional ago,” the ailment states.