Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Ticketmaster Causes Ticket Price Inflation Moves Forward

A class action lawsuit in British Columbia that alleges Ticketmaster inflates ticket prices in a secondary market, misrepresenting itself to consumers, has been certified by the British Columbia Supreme Court.

The class action lawsuit was filed after reporters for the Toronto Star and CBC went undercover at a 2018 convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, posing as professional ticket resellers, and attended a closed door session hosted by the secondary sales division of Ticketmaster, according to the certification document.

At that session, Ticketmaster representatives espoused the benefits of their inventory software, Tradedesk, and said that the secondary sales division of Ticketmaster did not share information about resellers’ accounts with the primary sales division, the document states.

“Ticketmaster employees were reported to have said that they were unconcerned with breaches of the Terms of Use that applied to the primary market, prohibiting use of ticket ‘bots’ and creation of multiple accounts,” the certification document says.

“Ticketmaster staff acknowledged that no professional reseller could make a living with only one primary market account, given the normal ticket limit of six or eight tickets per event.”

In response to the investigation, class action lawsuits were filed in Saskatchewan, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia.

The recently certified class action lawsuit in British Columbia claims that Ticketmaster made numerous individual misrepresentations in its Ticketmaster’s Terms of Use, saying it did not allow scalpers or bots to buy and resell tickets while allowing that exact behavior.

Lead Plaintiff David Gomel, a Vancouver-based lawyer, says in the class action lawsuit that Ticketmaster’s misrepresentations collectively amount to a general misrepresentation, “that all users will be afforded a fair opportunity to purchase tickets in the primary market for face price.”

Gomel purchased tickets for a concert on Stubhub, a competitor of Ticketmaster in the secondary market, at an inflated price, and alleges that he suffered damages that were the fault of Ticketmaster for allowing inflation in the market.

The class action lawsuit was suing for violations of the Business Practice and Consumer Protection Act (BCPA) and the misleading advertising provisions of the Competition Act, as well as for negligent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment. However, the British Columbia court only certified the BCPA claims, saying that there was lack of proof for the Competition Act claims.

Supreme Court Justice Mr. Justice Tammen said that claims of a “deceptive act” and “unconscionable” misrepresentation under the BCPA needed to be determined at trial.

The class action lawsuit isn’t the only legal action Ticketmaster is facing.

Concertgoers in the United States who filed a class action lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and its subsidiary Ticketmaster LLC alleging the companies monopolize ticket sales faced a recent setback when they were ordered to enter arbitration.

In May 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the company was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging that it implemented an “abusive” refund policy in order to withhold refunds from consumers who bought tickets to events that have since been cancelled, postponed or rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Have you bought concert tickets from the Ticketmaster website? How was your experience? Let us know in the comments section!

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