Taylor Swift Fans Sue Ticketmaster for Price Gouging

At the time Live Nation quoted “historically unprecedented demand” for the poor customer experience. In one declaration posted on Instagram, Swift said she had asked “several times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.” She added: “It’s really hard for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and it’s excruciating for me to just see mistakes happen with no recourse.”

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

In a statement to WIRED at the time, Live Nation disputed the claim. “The DoJ’s lawsuit will not address the issues fans are concerned about regarding ticket prices, service fees and access to in-demand shows,” the company wrote. “Calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the majority of service fees go to venues, and that the competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margin.”

The original lawsuit filed by Swift fans accused Ticketmaster and Live Nation of breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation and antitrust violations. The complaint alleges that Ticketmaster broke its promise to make tickets available to fans who qualified for the presale. Meanwhile, by entering into exclusivity contracts with major venues and forcing fans to resell tickets through its own resale marketplace, the lawsuit claims Ticketmaster established a monopoly that it exercises to raise ticket prices for its own financial gain.

“This case concerns Ticketmaster’s anti-competitive conduct to charge music concert attendees higher prices in the pre-sale, resale and resale markets,” the complaint states. “Ticketmaster has implemented this anti-competitive scheme by forcing fans of musicians to use Ticketmaster exclusively for presale and sale prices that are above what a competitive market price would be.”

The new lawsuit is nearly identical to the original federal case, but expands the scope to include fans of artists other than Taylor Swift and adds an alleged RICO violation to the list. The new allegation hinges on the premise that Ticketmaster and Live Nation coordinate with partner organizations to exercise market dominance and pressure consumers in a manner that meets the definition of an “enterprise” under the RICO Act.