Consumer Advocates and Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights Coalition Applaud Court Ruling Allowing Class Action Against Ticketmaster to Proceed

STATEMENT FROM THE TICKET BUYER BILL OF RIGHTS COALITION

Consumer Advocates and Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights Coalition Applaud Court Ruling Allowing Class Action Against Ticketmaster to Proceed

In a significant legal development for consumers, a California district court on Friday granted class certification in Skot Heckman et al v. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. et al, an ongoing case against Live Nation/Ticketmaster. The court order allows millions of ticket buyers nationwide, spanning more than 400 million ticket purchases since 2010, to band together and move forward with their claims against Ticketmaster for anti-competitive practices, unfair pricing involving excessive fees, and deceptive business practices. Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights Coalition welcomes the ruling which empowers ticket buyers to finally seek to hold the ticketing giant accountable in court.

The decision follows the court’s rejection of Ticketmaster’s effort to force consumers into a private individual arbitration proceeding as dictated in its terms and conditions. Last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held in this case that Ticketmaster’s arbitration process was “unconscionable, both procedurally and substantively.” Now, the class action ensures that individual consumers, who lack the resources to take on a corporate giant on their own, can pursue justice together.

“This ruling is especially important because after Ticketmaster failed in its attempts to force them into its restrictive arbitration process, ticket buyers who have long felt the burden of its pricing practices may now vindicate their rights,” said Christine Hines, senior policy director at the National Association of Consumer Advocates. “Arbitration should be a meaningful, voluntary choice for consumers instead of being forced on them in the fine print, but we’re pleased that courts following the rule of law are striking down the most oppressive and abusive of these terms.”

“Forced arbitration clauses buried in ticketing terms and conditions are fundamentally unjust,” said Brian Hess, Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. “They deny consumers their constitutional right to seek relief in court, prevent the aggregation of similar claims that expose systematic wrongdoing, and allow companies to avoid public scrutiny of their business practices. This class certification demonstrates exactly why arbitration clauses are so dangerous to consumer protection: without access to the courts, millions of affected ticket buyers would have been left without remedy.”

“This lawsuit highlights that the issues of consumer protection and market concentration are deeply connected,” said Eden Iscil, Senior Public Policy Manager at the National Consumers League. “The harms highlighted in this litigation, including inflated prices, are unlikely to go away unless Ticketmaster loses its monopoly position.”

This case highlights a critical issue the TBBR Coalition has championed since our founding: consumers must have meaningful access to legal recourse when ticketing companies engage in unfair or anticompetitive conduct. It is particularly significant that the Supreme Court rejected Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s attempt to force this dispute into private arbitration, a tactic designed to silence consumers and shield corporations from accountability.

The TBBR Coalition will continue to advocate forcefully for federal and state legislation that prohibits forced arbitration agreements in ticketing terms and conditions and enacts all the rights we believe fans should have, including:

1. The Right to Transferability,
2. The Right to Transparency,
3. The Right to Set the Price,
4. The Right to a Fair Marketplace, and
5. The Right To Recourse.

No consumer should be required to sign away their legal rights as a condition of purchasing a ticket to see their favorite artist, team, or show. Transparency, competition, and accountability can only flourish when consumers retain access to the courts.

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