Ticketmaster's fix for class action suit: buy more tickets
Bought a show ticket through Ticketmaster in the last decade or two? If so, a newly landing email declaring you are due "benefits" in a class-action lawsuit - Schlesinger v. Ticketmaster - is legit, not some Nigerian get-rich scam.
Bought a show ticket through Ticketmaster in the last decade or two?
If so, a newly landing email declaring you are due "benefits" in a class-action lawsuit - Schlesinger v. Ticketmaster - is legit, not some Nigerian get-rich scam.
Still, the terms and nature of the win may make you wonder, "Why bother?" Class members will have to buy more tickets to get minimal restitution. Or wait at least a year and hope fellow class members don't follow through with claims.
Standing for all consumers who bought tickets on Ticketmaster's website from Oct. 21, 1999, through Feb. 27, 2013, the California-based plaintiffs alleged that the description of Ticketmaster's fees was deceptive and misleading.
While not admitting any wrongdoing, the ticketing subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment Inc. agreed to supply those 57 million eligible Ticketmaster customers with discount coupons applicable to fees on future orders, beginning on June 18, 2016, and redeemable up to the same date in 2020.
Class members buying show tickets will get a $2.25 discount on the order processing fee and - and if they previously used UPS for delivery - will earn a $5 credit toward a new UPS shipment. Two shipping credits ($10) can be applied to a single transaction.
The same email also discusses a Ticket Code "potentially redeemable" for two tickets to a concert event presented by Live Nation.
Those ducats will only be available if/when class members don't use up at least $10.5 million per year (and $42.5 million total) of the $397 million available in discount codes.
The first batch of ticket giveaways won't kick in (if at all) until June 18, 2017. Live Nation decides which concert and club shows might be included in the offer. Locally, the show-promoting giant puts on events at Festival Pier, TLA, the Tower, the Fillmore, BB&T Pavilion, and the Wells Fargo Center.
The lawyers who brought this action are walking away with $14.9 million in fees, reported law360.com. Settlement objectors suggested that "those purporting to serve the class have sold it down the river."
In another coupon settlement studied and written about by the Philadelphia-based law firm Duane Morris, only 20 percent of class members who received coupons actually used them.
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