Ticketmaster has settled a class-action lawsuit that stems from the company and its subsidiaries using deceptive marketing practices towards its customers.
The company has agreed to pay out just over $6 million to around one million Canadians in the form of a credit voucher or electronic gift card worth up to $45.
This class action lawsuit includes Ticketmaster’s subsidiaries Live Nation Entertainment, The V.I.P. Tour Company, Ticketsnow.com, TNOW Entertainment Group and of course, Ticketmaster itself.
The deceptive marketing practices which prompted the lawsuit are related to price representations and non-optional fees for tickets purchased from Ticketmaster.
This practice is known as ‘drip pricing,’ and involves hiding unnecessary fees and adding them to the total cost of the ticket.
The affected timeline for Ticketmaster is between September 1st 2015 and June 30th 2018.
Those eligible for this credit voucher are all Canadian individuals who purchased a ticket from Ticketmaster on their computer or mobile phone within that timeframe.
The settlement was finalized on January 15th at the King’s Bench for Saskatchewan in Regina.
“While this case does not involve a mega-settlement, it has proved to be a legitimate consumer protection lawsuit which could only have been viably prosecuted as a class action,” wrote Justice Graeme Mitchell in his written decision earlier this month.
“Class counsel deserve an economic incentive for pursuing this claim to its successful resolution.”
In addition to the payouts for Canadians who bought tickets from the company, a $25,000 honorarium is to be paid out to Crystal Watch, the plaintiff who first brought this lawsuit forward against Ticketmaster back in 2018 for hiding fees.
This isn’t the first time Ticketmaster has gotten into trouble with hidden fees and drip pricing with several other lawsuits being brought against them over the last 30 years.
