Resale Ticket Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Distributors Refusing Refunds

Several event ticket distributors, including Live Nation and Ticketmaster, are facing a proposed class action lawsuit filed by a Quebec woman who claims that the companies refused to refund ticket holders for rescheduled and canceled events.

Lead plaintiff, Janie DesJardins, alleges in her complaint that a number of ticket distributors who run “fan to fan resale” tickets and refuse refund requests for canceled or rescheduled events from those who purchase tickets through these programs violate the terms of their contracts with the purchasers. This practice allegedly affects tickets sold within the province of Quebec, as well as for events held around the world.

DesJardins says she purchased tickets to a Francis Cabrel concert in April of 2019 from the website ticketscenter.com. The tickets were sold through a resale program, notes the plaintiff. The event was scheduled for June 22, 2020 but was allegedly rescheduled to an earlier date, June 16, 2020. DesJardins says she called the company on two occasions, once in February and again in March of 2020, to request a refund for the tickets, but was denied.

“It is worth emphasizing that both of these refusals to cancel the contract and refund the Applicant were before COVID-19 essentially shut down most of North America and therefore was always the Defendants’ policy and unrelated to the pandemic,” states the complaint.

Since then, the concert has again been postponed, this time until June 21, 2021. The plaintiff contends that she is entitled to a refund for the rescheduled show under law. She also says that other consumers who purchased resold tickets through the defendant companies, but were denied refunds for cancelled or rescheduled shows are also due payment.

The defendants include Internet Referral Services, also known as Tickets-Center.com, StubHub Canada, StubHub, TicketMaster, TicketMaster Canada, Live Nation, Live Nation Canada, Vivid Seats, and TicketNetwork.

“The Defendants are all merchants operating websites, mobile applications and call centers where consumers – while physically in the province of Quebec – can purchase tickets on the secondary market (i.e. resale tickets) for events held in Quebec and elsewhere around the world,” states the proposed ticket refund class action lawsuit. “The Ticketmaster and Live Nation Defendants operate websites, mobile applications and call centers where consumers can purchase tickets both on the primary and secondary markets for events held both in the province of Quebec and elsewhere. For this group of Defendants, this action only concerns the sale of their ‘Fan-to-Fan Resale’ tickets (which relate to the resale of tickets between fans on the secondary market, but in which Ticketmaster hides the identity of the buyer and seller from each other and earns a significant commission from this sale).”

According to the proposed resale ticket refund class action lawsuit, those who purchase resale tickets enter into a contract with the companies facilitating the sale. When these consumers notify the resale companies, such as Live Nation, of their intent to cancel the contract, they are entitled to a refund of the ticket price under Quebec’s Consumer Protection Act, contends the resale ticket refund class action lawsuit.

Despite their obligations under Quebec law, the plaintiff says that the defendant companies who run these resale programs systematically deny refund requests. In fact, alleges the resale ticket refund class action lawsuit, some go as far as fighting chargeback requests made by consumers when they dispute the charge with their credit card company.

“Ticketmaster even refuses to let Quebec consumers dispute the charges on their credit cards and puts up a fight with the credit card companies so that Quebec consumers are denied their legal right to a chargeback pursuant to [the Consumer Protection Act],” alleges the complaint. “The Ticketmaster and Live Nation Defendants should be condemned to punitive damages for this clearly intentional and ill-spirited breach of the [Consumer Protection Act].”

The proposed resale ticket refund class action lawsuit seeks to represent those who purchased resold tickets through any of the defendants and who did not get a refund for rescheduled events between June 6, 2018 and now. The complaint indicates that there are thousands of potential Class Members who have been denied refunds through one of these ticket resale outlets.

The proposed resale ticket refund class action lawsuit is seeking damages on behalf of the proposed Class Members, as well as a court order nullifying the contracts between Class Members and the defendant companies.

Have you purchased resold tickets through Live Nation, Ticketmaster, or another outlet? Was your event rescheduled? Did you get a refund? Tell us what happened in the comment section below!

The lead plaintiff and proposed Class Members are represented by Joey Zukran of LPC Avocat Inc.

The Live Nation Ticket Resale Class Action Lawsuit is DesJardins v. Internet Referral Services, LLC, et al., Case No. 500-06-001072-202, in the Superior Court of Québec, District of Montreal, Canada.

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