Swifties are headed to court.
Some Taylor Swift fans, often called “Swifties,” went to court in Los Angeles on Monday to go up against Ticketmaster after the debacle that caused fans to wait for hours to be able to get tickets for Swift’s Eras Tour, only to leave the site empty-handed.
Swifties started pursuing a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, in December for “unlawful conduct,” claiming it “violated antitrust laws,” CNN reported.
Arguments on Monday were largely procedural, and plaintiffs are requesting at least $2,500 in damages. Around a dozen fans traveled to LA to testify in the federal civil lawsuit about their grievances, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Lead plaintiff tried 41 times to get Taylor Swift tickets
“I tried in total of 41 times that first day to get tickets. It kicks you out into the queue and you’re back in and then I kept getting errors,” Julie Barfuss, the lead plaintiff on the case, told CNN. “Then, I again spent a couple hours trying to do it the second day. When I finally got in and was going to buy tickets, they were like $1,400.”
Barfuss also questioned the high service fees at checkout, as well as how much of the profits go back into “improving technology to kick out bots and withstand high fan volume without slowing down or crashing Ticketmaster’s system,” Rolling Stone reported.
Is Ticketmaster a monopoly?
Plaintiffs are also questioning the level of influence Ticketmaster should be allowed to have — for the Eras Tour, fans could only purchase tickets from Ticketmaster.
Before ticket purchases during the presale, fans had to preregister to see if they could become a verified fan. If they were approved, verified fans received a code and were notified of which show they would be allowed to attempt to purchase tickets for during the presale.
According to the lawsuit, Ticketmaster offered codes to 1.4 million verified fans, and more than two million tickets were sold on the first day of the presale — which amounted to the most tickets sold for an artist in a single day, per CNN.
“Ticketmaster is a monopoly that is only interested in taking every dollar it can from a captive public,” the lawsuit said, per CNN.
Ticketmaster and ADA seating
Another concern centered around Americans with Disabilities Act seating that is accessible to fans with disabilities. Dallas lawyer Griffin McMillin argues that the current ticketing system doesn’t save those tickets for fans who have disabilities.
“(There were) people who wanted ADA tickets that couldn’t get them and they were selling them to people who won’t even know they were taking away ADA tickets. It’s such a simple fix and they don’t care. And if we don’t care who will?” McMillin told KTLA 5. “Ticketmaster is the worst. They don’t give a crap about ordinary people. All these ordinary people, when they’re given the opportunity, will stand up to bullies.”
The next hearing for the Swifties will be May 25.