- Nine Swifties has asked the FTC to review Ticketmaster’s ticket presale for their upcoming tour.
- They said Ticketmaster abused its dominant position in the ticketing industry to scam people.
- The group urges Swift fans to file complaints with their attorneys general.
A group of Taylor Swift fan activists who united after the failed pre-sale of her upcoming tour have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Ticketmaster over her role, according to a copy of the complaint shared with Insider.
The group – which includes four US attorneys and a law graduate – claimed Ticketmaster failed to honor its statements about who could access the pre-sale or its commitment to let people who purchased goods from Taylor’s website Swift get priority access to tickets.
He also claimed that users who were successful in selecting seats were often confused by the presence of “VIP” packages that cost hundreds of dollars extra and were not advertised beforehand. Some users felt they had no choice but to pay for a VIP package if they wanted to see Swift, who last toured in 2018.
“[Ticketmaster’s] the actions left uninformed, frustrated and mentally drained consumers feeling pressured and cheated – all without any clarity about what product they were buying,” the complaint states.
The complaint also alleged that Ticketmaster violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to specify which seats were accessible to people with disabilities. Ticketmaster did not respond to a request for comment on the complaint.
Tickets for Swift’s “The Eras” tour went on sale Nov. 15 for those with Ticketmaster “Verified Fan” status or a Capital One credit card. But many customers reacted in anger and confusion, saying they had not received the pre-sale codes they were entitled to, or waited for hours in digital queues, only to find that tickets had been collected for be resold at multiples of their face value.
Ticketmaster said it was facing unprecedented demand and had done nothing wrong. The company hinted that people who weren’t allowed to buy tickets tried to do so anyway, and said it operates in competitive markets and abides by antitrust laws.
Vigilante Legal, the group that filed the complaint, was formed last month to advocate for consumer rights and fairness, according to Jordan Burger, a US-educated law graduate who lives in Australia and is involved in the band. He’s trying to get Swifties to file complaints with their attorneys general, in part because of how difficult it is for consumers to sue Ticketmaster, he said.
Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation Entertainment, dominates the ticket sales market in the United States. The company said it was complying with the law, but the Justice Department said in 2019 that Live Nation and Ticketmaster violated covenants they made in 2010 not to abuse market power.
Some lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Richard Blumenthal, said the Swift fiasco underscores the need to undo the corporate merger and promote competition in the live entertainment industry, according to Reuters. The New York Times reported last month that federal law enforcement has questioned music venues about Live Nation’s conduct, saying they are still investigating the company.
Vigilante Legal’s eight-page complaint includes several exhibits: copies of a Ticketmaster blog post, a marketing email sent to fans, as well as Twitter feeds and customer support messages they claim are evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Ticketmaster. The complaint claims that Ticketmaster’s tie-up with Live Nation in 2010 should have been blocked.
“It’s bigger than Taylor Swift,” Burger said. It is about “putting pressure on the government to do the job it should have done in 2010”.
The complaint also includes a Swift-themed pun, accusing the company of stirring up “bad blood” – the title of Swift’s 2014 song with Kendrick Lamar – and including a reference to her 2017 hit “Look What You Made Me Do” in its header.
