Taylor Swift fans sue Ticketmaster after disastrous ticket sale rollout

On the heels of a disastrous pre-sale incident, which saw the company abandon plans for regular ticket sales, more than two dozen Taylor Swift fans have sued the ticket giant, saying it violated antitrust laws and unfairly imposed higher prices on fans for seats to Swift’s “The Eras Tour.”

The fans are looking to give voice (and seek penalties for) the millions of fans who never even got a chance to attempt to buy a ticket.

“Ticketmaster is a monopoly that is only interested in taking every dollar it can from a captive public,” the complaint reads.

Ticketmaster was forced to cancel its general sale of tickets for Swift’s 2023 Eras tour on Nov. 17, citing “extraordinarily high demand” during the pre-sales. Pre-sales for the 52 shows began two days prior for “verified” fans of the pop star, but ended in chaos and frustration for countless people when some verification codes failed and bots overwhelmed the system.

Ticketmaster has tried to shake off the incident, apologizing to fans, but it launched a political movement against the company, with some big names, including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, pointing fans to where complaints could be made with the U.S. Department of Justice and several state attorneys general announcing investigations.

The lawsuit alleges Ticketmaster forced fans to use its site, since it has agreements with large stadiums in the tour, which gave Swift “no choice” but to work with them.

“Millions of fans waited up to eight hours and were unable to purchase tickets as a result of insufficient ticket releases,” the lawsuit said. “Ticketmaster intentionally provided codes when it could not satisfy demands.”

Live Nation, the parent firm of Ticketmaster, said in a Nov. 19 statement it “takes its responsibilities under the antitrust laws seriously and does not engage in behaviors that could justify antitrust litigation, let alone orders that would require it to alter fundamental business practices.”