Plaintiff Wants $397M Ticketmaster Class Action Settlement Approved

Last week, the Ticketmaster buyer Class sought approval from a California judge for a proposed settlement of the class action lawsuit accusing Ticketmaster of charging excessive order processing and delivery fees that would amount up to $397 million.

The class action lawsuit has been in litigation for over 10 years. The plaintiffs accused Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment Inc. of charging order processing fees that overstated the cost of processing orders along with excessive UPS fees for delivery in a complaint filed in October of 2003. A Los Angeles judge certified a Class of California consumers in February 2010, but in September of that same year, after the plaintiffs appealed the ruling, a California appeals court issued an order in September 2010 requiring certification of a nationwide Class.

The class action lawsuit covers approximately 180 million transactions, with only a few dollars’ worth of challenged fees per transaction. The order processing fees averaged roughly $4 each and applied to all transactions, while the delivery fees ranged from $15 to $20 but were only charged in 5 percent of the transactions.

Judge Kenneth R. Freeman did not rule on the Ticketmaster class action settlement last week. The motion for final approval of the proposed settlement is designed to deliver a minimum value of more than $60 million. Two years ago, Judge Freeman refused to grant final approval to an earlier deal worth up to $280 million.

Objections to the  Ticketmaster class action settlement have been raised. Class Members are concerned that they would have to access the settlement funds through Ticketmaster because they are given credit rather than funds. Objectors additionally claim that so few of the Class Members would end up benefiting from the deal that the proposed class action settlement is “laughable.” Provisions allowing for up to $15 million in attorneys’ fees for class counsel separate from the class action settlement, with no common fund are also unfair according to the objectors who indicated that “those purporting to serve the class have sold it down the river,” in court documents.

Under the terms of the Ticketmaster class action settlement, Class Members will be emailed credit codes worth $2.25 and can be “stacked” to $4.50 for a single purchase. Class Members who were charged for delivery fees will receive $5 credits that can also be doubled up and applied to future delivery fees. Class Members will have four years to use the credits. The Ticketmaster class action settlement also allows for a $3 million cy pres payment to the University of California, Irvine School of Law. The funds will be devoted to consumer advocacy purposes, according to court documents. Additionally, if less than $10.5 million in credits are redeemed each year of the four-year period, Ticketmaster will make free event tickets available to Class Members, according to court documents.

The Class is represented by Robert J. Stein III, Raul F. Salinas and Claire M. Schmidt ofAlvaradoSmith APC and Steven P. Blonder of Much Shelist Denenberg Ament & Rubenstein PC.

The Ticketmaster Ticket Fee Class Action Lawsuit is Curt Schlesinger, et al. v. Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc., Case No. BC304565, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

UPDATE: 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 2: 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.