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Taylor Swift fans are suing Ticketmaster for ‘unfair business practices’

‘Millions of fans waited up to eight hours and were unable to purchase tickets’

Peony Hirwani
Monday 05 December 2022 05:42 GMT
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Howard Stern mocks Taylor Swift fans over Ticketmaster meltdown

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Taylor Swift’s fans are suing Ticketmaster over the presale ticket fiasco for her Eras Tour.

Last month, tickets for the North American leg of the 32-year-old singer’s 2023 tour were released via presale.

However, the event site Ticketmaster crashed, with many expressing their disappointment on social media.

Soon after the presale launched, tickets emerged on resale sites for as much as $22,000 (£18,500).

The general sale was originally scheduled to take place on Friday (18 November), but was ultimately cancelled due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory”.

Now, approximately 26 Swift fans have filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court accusing Ticketmaster of “intentionally and purposefully” allowing scalpers and bots to buy concert tickets.

“Ticketmaster was eager to allow this arrangement, as Ticketmaster is paid again in additional fees every time a ticket is resold,” the suit stated.

“Millions of fans waited up to eight hours and were unable to purchase tickets as a result of insufficient ticket releases,” the document obtained by Deadline alleged.

SPOTIFY-TOP GLOBAL
SPOTIFY-TOP GLOBAL (AP)

“Ticketmaster does not charge high prices to give a better service,” the suit stated. “It charges higher prices because it has no real competition and wants to take every dollar it can from buyers.”

Last month, Swift also shared her take on the situation in a post to Instagram Stories.

“It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse,” she wrote.

“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.

“It’s truly amazing that 2.4m people got tickets, but it really p***es me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”

European dates for the Eras tour have not yet been announced.

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