Taylor Swift fans sue Ticketmaster over disastrous concert presale


Swifties are taking their bad blood with Ticketmaster to a courtroom.
More than two dozen Taylor Swift fans have sued Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation, alleging "unlawful" anti-competitive conduct following a disastrous concert presale, according to CNN.
"Ticketmaster is a monopoly that is only interested in taking every dollar it can from a captive public," the lawsuit alleges.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Ticketmaster held a presale event in November inviting "verified fans" who received a code to purchase tickets to Swift's Eras tour, but it was plagued by technical issues. Ticketmaster blamed this on a "staggering number of bot attacks" and "fans who didn't have codes" driving "unprecedented traffic" to the site. Due to "extraordinarily high demands" and "insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand," a general public sale was then canceled.
But the lawsuit alleges Ticketmaster "intentionally and purposely" misled fans by providing millions of presale codes knowing it "could not satisfy demands." Fans also allege Ticketmaster is an illegal monopoly, as "no other venue can hold half as many people as the stadiums and venues working through Ticketmaster," so "Taylor Swift and other popular musicians have no choice but to work through" them, per The Hollywood Reporter. The suit seeks a $2,500 fine per violation.
Ticketmaster's botched presale led to increased scrutiny of the company and its merger with Live Nation, which is reportedly facing a DOJ antitrust investigation. Swift slammed Ticketmaster in November, saying it's "excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
-
September 7 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include stressing about Powerball, and a busy FBI schedule
-
Nvidia: unstoppable force, or powering down?
Talking Point Sales of firm's AI-powering chips have surged above market expectations –but China is the elephant in the room
-
5 hard-working cartoons about Labor Day celebrations
Cartoons Artists take on creation of AI, spelling mistakes, and more
-
The most notable records Taylor Swift has broken
In Depth The pop star has cemented herself as one of the century's most popular artists
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle