Swift fan suing Ticketmaster says plaintiffs want answers

Ticketmaster is being sued by Taylor Swift fans after last fall's debacle
One fan says he spent 14 hours trying to get tickets to her world tour
The fan said others faced unexpected fees and long waits

Updated: Mar 16, 2023 / 02:28 PM EDT

(NewsNation) — When it comes to backlash over the sale of Taylor Swift tickets last fall, it may be difficult for Ticketmaster to just “Shake it Off.”

Swift’s highly anticipated The Eras tour starts Friday. But for many fans, it was a nightmare buying tickets. Ticket sales for the tour started in November, and were initially only supposed to be available to people with a specific presale code on Ticketmaster. Bots and others without a code were able to log on to the website anyway, though it was faced with unprecedented demand and frustration from Swift fans.

Ultimately, Ticketmaster canceled plans to launch public ticket sales to The Eras tour, citing “extraordinarily high demands” and too few tickets.

“We want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans — especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets,” Ticketmaster said on Twitter.

Since then, there has been “Bad Blood” between “Swifties,” as the fans are called, and Ticketmaster. Some have now chosen to sue the platform and its parent company Live Nation.

One plaintiff, Joe Akmakjian, told NewsNation’s Marni Hughes that he received a code to purchase tickets, but still spent 14 hours in total to get them, and had to pay “a lot of fees” as well.

“We want to understand why this happened,” he said. “Was Ticketmaster aware of ways that it could have been better?”

Many people found that when they swiped their credit card, tickets they purchased were sold out, Akmakjian said on “NewsNation Live.” In some cases, they would find that the ticket price went up.

“People were like, ‘These weren’t the terms I agreed on,'” Akmakjian said. “It’s not OK to be offering fans an opportunity to buy tickets at one price, but also without the ability to understand what they’re purchasing.”

Akmakjian says the next hearing for the suit he’s involved in will be on March 27 in Los Angeles. While it will be in federal court, Akmakjian says he and his fellow plaintiffs hope it will be moved to California state court.