The only people more pissed than Taylor Swift at Ticketmaster are her fans — a couple dozen of whom are now suing because they got shut out of the chaotic presale for her ‘Eras’ Tour.
The fans, who are from all over the country, want Ticketmaster to pay dearly for, in their estimation, allowing bots and scalpers to royally screw up the November 15 presale event. As we reported, millions of fans had to wait hours in a digital “lineup” in hopes of scoring seats — but the vast majority of them never even got a sniff of a single ticket.
According to docs, obtained by TMZ, Ticketmaster was supposed to send “verified” Taylor Swift fans a code on Nov. 14, which would allow them access to the presale event — but the angry fans say thousands of them either didn’t get a code, or were sent malfunctioning codes.
In the suit, they accuse Ticketmaster of intentional deception, because the company controls the primary ticket sale market, as well as the secondary market — aka scalpers. The fans allege Ticketmaster was “eager to allow” scalpers access to the presale … Ticketmaster would collect additional fees every time a scalper resold a ticket.
Translation: Ticketmaster’s double-dipping with scalpers, while Taylor’s true fans get left nothing.
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Justice Department Investigating Ticketmaster’s Parent Company Amidst Swift Drama
Even if you don’t buy Ticketmaster intentionally cozied up to scalpers and bots — the fans say, at the very least, the company was inept … in that it was ill-prepared for the flood of Swifties who would try to get tickets to Taylor’s first tour since the covid pandemic.
As we told you, Taylor herself called out Ticketmaster for this issue … saying the company had reassured her and her team they could handle the volume of fans.
The fans are alleging fraud, price fixing and antitrust violations … as they claim Ticketmaster is the only game in town when it comes to large concert venues that can accommodate artists as big as Taylor.
They’re suing in L.A. County — where Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation has its HQ — to get back the “ill-gotten gains” Ticketmaster amassed during the presale disaster. They also want the court to hit the company with a civil fine of $2500 per violation … just to teach ’em a lesson.