ORLANDO, Fla. – There’s bad blood between Taylor Swift fans and Ticketmaster, and now they’re taking the entertainment giant to court.
Some two dozen Taylor Swift fans filed a lawsuit in a California court on Friday, accusing Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation Entertainment of violating antitrust laws, according to CNN.
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The suit claims Ticketmaster imposed higher prices on fans in the presale, sale and resale market, and forced concertgoers to exclusively use the site, controlled all registration and access to Swift’s tour, and has agreements with the stadiums used in the tour, meaning Swift has no choice but to work with Ticketmaster.
In addition, the lawsuit also claims Ticketmaster profits off the resale of tickets through a service fee used on its exchange.
Heavy demand for presale tickets to Swift’s “The Eras Tour” jammed the website and left millions of fans unable to get tickets back in November, or waiting in hourslong queues. Then Ticketmaster canceled sales to the general public.
Swift lashed out at the company in a statement to fans last month.
“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,” she wrote. “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.”
The 26 Swift fans named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit in the case, come from across the country.
The Ticketmaster fiasco has also attracted the attention of the federal government. The Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into whether Live Nation has a monopoly in the market for concerts. State attorneys general are also looking into the case.
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