A class action lawsuit filed in Quebec against Ticketmaster’s fee practices has made progress after Quebec Superior Court Justice Eleni Yiannakis ruled that the case can proceed to trial.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, filed by law firm Paquette<\/b> Gadler Inc.<\/b> in August 2024 on behalf of Montreal resident and immigration lawyer Felipe<\/b> Morales<\/b>, alleges that Ticketmaster<\/b>‘s service fees breach Quebec’s Consumer Protection Act and Civil Code<\/b>.<\/p>\n
The complaint centers on Ticketmaster\u2019s fee structure that fluctuates based on ticket prices instead of the actual cost of services rendered, according to the complaint. The law firm described this pricing model as \u201cexcessive, unreasonable, abusive and disproportionate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morales allegedly encountered Ticketmaster\u2019s fee structure firsthand when he bought Bruce<\/b> Springsteen<\/b> tickets in 2022, according to a court document, which you can read here<\/a>. Morales initially selected four floor seats at $225<\/b> each but was booted from the transaction before completion.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the Plaintiff attempted to finalize his purchase, he received a message to the effect that his \u2018transaction could not be finalized\u2019,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n When he returned to the site minutes later, those seats were unavailable. He ultimately paid $1,000 <\/b>per ticket for different seats, then faced an additional $599<\/b> in fees, or about 15%<\/b> of the $4,000<\/b> ticket total.<\/p>\n The complaint noted that while the tickets purchased were still floor seats, they were situated far back, while the original tickets that Morales attempted to book were VIP tickets available to members of Springsteen\u2019s fan club and situated near the stage.<\/p>\n Morales filed the proposed class action, seeking authorization to represent other consumers who purchased event tickets through Ticketmaster’s Canadian entities from July 26, 2021 onward.<\/p>\n The lawsuit said: \u201c[I]t is reasonable to infer that the Main Class and the Consumer Class are composed of thousands of persons and that the Plaintiff is certainly not the only person to have suffered damages caused by the Defendants’ fault in this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit targets four Ticketmaster entities: Ticketmaster Canada LP<\/b>, Ticketmaster Canada ULC<\/b>, Ticketmaster Canada Holdings ULC<\/b>, and the US-based Ticketmaster LLC<\/b>. Ticketmaster is owned by Live Nation Entertainmen<\/b>t.<\/p>\n The complaint added: \u201cIt is clear that the global and regional situation in which the Live Nation company and its Subsidiaries, including the Defendants, operate is monopolistic and this only reinforces the need to ensure that the Defendants comply with their legal obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is clear that the global and regional situation in which the Live Nation company and its Subsidiaries, including the Defendants, operate is monopolistic and this only reinforces the need to ensure that the Defendants comply with their legal obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n Paquette<\/b> Gadler Inc. on behalf of Felipe Morales<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n A spokesperson for Ticketmaster told<\/a> Billboard Canada <\/i>that ticket fees are “split between the venue and Ticketmaster to cover the essential costs of supporting the show, from staffing the venue to funding anti-fraud technology and payment processing.”<\/p>\n They added: “Ticketmaster\u2018s share of service fees is typically around 5-7%<\/b> of the total ticket price. We believe the most fair and transparent approach is showing fans the total cost upfront, which we’ve done in Canada since 2018. These fees are also scaled with the ticket price to help keep lower-priced tickets as affordable as possible.”<\/p>\n “We believe the most fair and transparent approach is showing fans the total cost upfront, which we’ve done in Canada since 2018.”<\/p>\n Spokesperson for Ticketmaster (via billboard canada)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The class action in Quebec is just among a string of lawsuits that Ticketmaster is currently facing, alongside its parent Live Nation. Last week (January 5), a class action lawsuit was filed<\/a> against Ticketmaster alleging its website deploys unauthorized surveillance tools that violate California privacy laws.<\/p>\n The complaint, filed by Solano County, California resident named\u00a0Jeffrey<\/b>\u00a0Scruggs<\/b>, claims that Ticketmaster employs advertising and analytics trackers from\u00a0Google<\/b>,\u00a0Facebook<\/b>,\u00a0TikTok<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Microsoft<\/b>\u00a0Bing<\/b>, as well as those operated by\u00a0Pinterest<\/b>,\u00a0Snap<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Comscore<\/b>, to illegally \u201ccollect, receive, and process\u201d information from users such as IP addresses, page URLs, timestamps, and device or browser characteristics, among others.<\/p>\n Separately on December 30, 2025, defunct ticketing company Fanimal<\/b>, based in Santa Monica, California,\u00a0sued<\/a>\u00a0Ticketmaster and Live Nation over their alleged anticompetitive tactics that drove it out of business.<\/p>\n On January 6, Ticketmaster and\u00a0Live Nation\u00a0asked<\/a>\u00a0a federal judge to throw out the\u00a0US Federal Trade Commission<\/b>\u2019s lawsuit over ticket resales. The FTC\u00a0sued<\/a>\u00a0the pair in September, arguing that they violated the\u00a0BOTS Act<\/b>\u00a0by knowingly allowing ticket scalpers to buy up large blocks of tickets during on-sales.<\/p>\n Separately, the US Department of Justice <\/b>also\u00a0<\/b>sued<\/a>\u00a0the companies in 2024, seeking to break them apart after merging in 2010. A federal judge\u00a0denied<\/a>\u00a0Live Nation\u2019s motion to dismiss two major parts of that lawsuit in March 2025. The company then\u00a0filed a motion<\/a>\u00a0asking for a quick end to that case in November.<\/p>\n Last month, a class action by consumers\u00a0received<\/a>\u00a0certification, and another group of plaintiffs that includes\u00a0Taylor Swift<\/b>\u00a0fans\u00a0survived<\/a>\u00a0a dismissal motion in November related to the\u00a0Eras Tour\u00a0<\/i>presale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The complaint centers on Ticketmaster\u2019s fee structure that fluctuates based on ticket prices instead of the actual cost of services rendered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":248414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[489,118126,490],"class_list":["post-248391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-live-nation","tag-live-nation-entertainment","tag-ticketmaster"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248391"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248415,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248391\/revisions\/248415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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