Ticketmaster Ticket Fee Class Action Settlement Preliminarily Approved

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

A $400 million class action settlement between Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and a class of consumers who claim they were illegally overcharged certain fees when they purchased tickets from the Ticketmaster website has been preliminarily approved.

Judge Kenneth R. Freeman of Los Angeles preliminarily approved the Ticketmaster class action settlement more than a year after he rejected a deal worth up to $280 million, finding that the class action settlement did not provide real value to Class Members.

On April 30, Judge Freeman approved the new version of the Ticketmaster settlement, finding that the class action settlement “is a product of informed, arm’s-length negotiations which occurred with considerable input and assistance of two well-respected mediators; has no apparent deficiencies; and falls well within the range of reasonableness which would be a prerequisite for final approval.”

The Ticketmaster class action settlement will provide Class Members with approximately $386 million in discount codes. Ticketmaster denies any wrongdoing but has agreed to settle the class action lawsuit to avoid the burden and expense involved with ongoing litigation.

The plaintiffs initially filed the Ticketmaster class action lawsuit in October 2003, alleging Ticketmaster violated California’s false advertising and unfair competition laws by charging excessive order processing fees and fees for UPS delivery of tickets purchased from the Ticketmaster website.

Under the terms of the Ticketmaster class action settlement, Class Members include all persons who placed orders for tickets from the Ticketmaster website during the period from Oct. 21, 1999 and Feb. 27, 2013 and paid an order processing fee that was not refunded. Class Members must have been residents of the United States at the time of purchase. A subclass has been established for Class Members who paid Ticketmaster a fee for UPS delivery of tickets.

Class Members of the Ticketmaster settlement will receive a discount code for each purchase transaction made during the Class Period, up to a maximum of 17 discount codes. Each discount code is worth a $2.25 credit that can be applied to future purchases of tickets from the Ticketmaster website. Each UPS Subclass Member will receive discount codes worth a $5.00 credit to be used to pay for future UPS charges when ordering tickets from the Ticketmaster website. Members of the Subclass can receive a maximum of 17 UPS discount codes.

According to the Ticketmaster settlement documents, Class Members will receive the discount codes by email within 90 days of final approval of the class action settlement. If Class Members do not redeem at least $42 million worth of discount codes, Ticketmaster will make free tickets to certain events available to Class Members

A hearing for the final approval of the Ticketmaster class action settlement has been scheduled for Jan. 13, 2015.

The plaintiffs are represented by Robert J. Stein III, Raul F. Salinas and Claire M. Schmidt of Alvarado Smith APC.

The Ticketmaster Ticket Fee Class Action Lawsuit is Curt Schlesinger, et al. v. Ticketmaster, Case No. BC 304565, in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.

 UPDATE 6/4/14: Details about the Ticketmaster class action settlement are available here or at www.TicketFeeLitigation.com.

UPDATE 2: On June 19, 2016, Top Class Actions readers who submitted timely and valid claims for the Ticketmaster settlement began receiving ticket codes for concert events.

UPDATE 3: On June 21, 2016, Ticketmaster settlement Class Members may have noticed that their voucher codes disappeared yesterday. According to Ticketmaster, this was because the eligible list of events was not available yet. However, as of this afternoon the Ticket Code Dedication Site appears to be active.
Ticketmaster has also provided this link to Class Members to address any other questions related to using their ticket vouchers.