Sarah Mirando  |  October 5, 2012

Category: Legal News

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TicketmasterA judge has rejected the Ticketmaster fee class action lawsuit settlement reached last year, stating the deal doesn’t benefit consumers. The Ticketmaster settlement would have provided $1.50 and $5 coupon codes to more than 50 million Ticketmaster customers allegedly overcharged through excessive and deceptive processing and shipping fees.

“In the court’s opinion, this settlement represents a windfall for Ticketmaster and does not represent ‘real value’ for Class Members,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kenneth Freeman wrote in his September 26, 2012 decision.

Freeman noted that Class Members would be required to make further purchases from Ticketmaster in order to receive any benefit from the class action lawsuit settlement, while attorneys would have received $16.5 million in fees and expense reimbursements.

He also noted that the Ticketmaster Settlement Administrator was unable to reach over 10 million Class Members via email out of the total 50.7 million consumers eligible to receive benefits from the Ticketmaster fee settlement. With a 20% failure rate, Judge Freeman called the notification process ineffective.

“The fact that 10,178,696 emails were not delivered is of significant concern to the court,” Freeman wrote.

Customers alleged in the Ticketmaster class action lawsuit that the ticketing giant deceived and misled customers into believing that it’s Order Processing Fee was a pass-through of the amount that UPS charged Ticketmaster for that delivery when it was actually a profit generator for Ticketmaster. The lawsuit also asserts that Ticketmaster’s UPS delivery charges are excessive and deceptive.

Ticketmaster collected an estimated $590 million in processing fees on 170 million transactions from 1999 to 2011, when the actual cost to process those transactions was $165 million, according to the class action lawsuit. Ticketmaster also overcharged 9 million customers $64 million in UPS shipping fees, which ranged from $15 to $20 per transaction. Class Members who paid these excessive shipping fees would only have received $5 back in the form of a coupon code.

Judge Freeman set a Status Conference for October 15, 2012.

The case is Curt Schlesinger, et al. v. Ticketmaster, Case No. BC304565, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.

UPDATE: Judge Freeman preliminarily approved the Ticketmaster class action settlement on April 30, 2014.

UPDATE 2: Details about the Ticketmaster class action settlement are available here or at www.TicketFeeLitigation.com.

UPDATE 3: 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 4: 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.

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4 thoughts onTicketmaster Fee Class Action Settlement Rejected

  1. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE 4: 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.

  2. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE 3: 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.

  3. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE: Judge Freeman preliminarily approved the Ticketmaster class action settlement on April 30, 2014: http://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/29377-ticketmaster-ticket-fee-class-action-settlement-preliminarily-approved/

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