Taylor Swift fans rally outside Los Angeles court amid lawsuit suing Ticketmaster and Live Nation

Record ID: 1717378

  • Title: Taylor Swift fans rally outside Los Angeles court amid lawsuit suing Ticketmaster and Live Nation
  • Date: 27th March 2023
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES (MARCH 27, 2023) (REUTERS) WIDE OF TAYLOR SWIFT FANS GATHERED AT LOS ANGELES COURTHOUSE TAYLOR FANS CHANTING “NO MORE COVER UP, YOU CAN’T SHUT US UP” AND “WHEN THE FANS ARE UNITED, WE WILL NEVER BE DIVIDED” PLAINTIFF ATTORNEY COUNSEL JOHN GENGA IN GREY SUIT (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHN GENGA, LEAD COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFFS, SAYING: “As it stands right now, we got 340 individual plaintiffs that are, the next step is to deal with this issue about arbitration. We'll get some discovery on that, which is good. We want to have access to the electronic data that every one of our clients recorded when they attempted to purchase tickets. And hopefully that'll provide us a lot more information than just, you know, what they click through to supposedly sign in and supposedly agree to arbitrate.” VARIOUS OF FAN PENNY HARRISON (SOUNDBITE) (English) PENNY HARRISON, PLAINTIFF, SAYING: “I mean, I tried to get a Taylor Swift ticket. It was $750. Then you had the fees on top of it and at this point, I'm paying 24-hundred dollars for three tickets. It's crazy the amount. A typical 18 year old cannot afford that, right? Nobody's. They're just out priced. So when you look at those, your only other option besides the Ticketmaster Live Nation one is to go through the other competition, are all the resale sites. So when you go through a resale site, you're also paying triple the amount that you would normally pay. Right. There's no regulations on those.” FANS CHANTING “POWER TO THE SWIFTIES” AND “STICK IT TO THE MAN” LAURA WATSON SPEAKING WITH REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) LAURA WATSON, PLAINTIFF, SAYING: “Why should they have such a monopoly over everything? Why do they get to control absolutely everything? Who gets to sell the tickets, own the stadiums, do the promotions? It's just crazy. I don't understand. So regulate them? I don't know. I would love for them to be broken up. When they did the merger, they said they were going to have to do agreements with that and be some sort of regulations. The only thing I see is that they just keep paying the fines, starting over.” UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE EXTERIOR MEDIA POOL VARIOUS OF PLAINTIFF COUNSEL (SOUNDBITE) (English) MELANIE CARLSON, SWIFT SUPPORTER, SAYING: “They need to be found complicit in price fixing, manipulating prices to get the most out of fans. It's ruining the art and the experience and the collectivism that we have when we all sing together in harmony. And ultimate outcome is just more freedom. You know, monopolies are authoritarian systems by design.” PAN DOWN OF COURTHOUSE WITH SWIFTIE FANS CHANTING “HEY HEY HO HO TICKETMASTER’S GOTTA GO”
  • Embargoed: 10th April 2023 21:32
  • Keywords: CONCERTS MUSIC TAYLOR SWIFT TICKETMASTER TICKETS
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • City: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA001069527032023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Taylor Swift fans rallied outside a Los Angeles courthouse on Monday (March 27), as a hearing began about a lawsuit filed against Ticketmaster and event promoter Live Nation, over their sale of tickets to Swift's concerts.
    Demand from fans, scalpers and bots for Swift's first tour in five years caused the Ticketmaster site to crash last November. The December lawsuit alleged the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster eliminated market competition and let the companies charge higher prices for Swift tickets than they otherwise could.
    "Why should they have such a monopoly over everything? Who gets to sell the tickets, own the stadiums, do the promotions? It's just crazy. I don't understand. I would love for them to be broken up," Plaintiff Laura Watson told Reuters.
    Lead counsel John Genga said there are 340 individual plaintiffs in the case, each with their personal stories, and therefore, the next step is discussing arbitration.
    "We want to have access to the electronic data that every one of our clients recorded when they attempted to purchase tickets. And hopefully they'll provide us a lot more information than just, what they click through to supposedly sign in and supposedly agree to arbitrate," said Genga.
    Taylor Swift fan, Penny Harrison, said the case is much bigger than purchasing a ticket.
    "I tried to get a Taylor Swift ticket. It was $750. Then you add the fees on top of it and I'm paying $2400 for three tickets. It's crazy the amount. Your only other option besides Ticketmaster/Live Nation is to go through all the resale sites. When you go through a resale site, you're also paying triple the amount that you would normally pay," Harrison said.
    In November, Swift posted on Instagram that it was "excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse." She said she was "not going to make excuses for anyone" because her team had been assured by ticket sellers that they could handle a surge in demand. Ticketmaster offered seats for most shows on the 20-city, 52-date U.S. stadium tour. SeatGeek sold tickets for a handful of performances in Texas and Arizona and also reported long waits.
    Ticketmaster said it experienced unprecedented interest in Swift's tour and worked quickly to resolve technical problems.
    (Production: Alan Devall and Jorge Garcia)
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