Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Photo Credit: Andrew Welch
Ticketmaster is reportedly grappling with yet another class-action lawsuit – this time over the price of Drake tickets in the artist’s native Canada.
Regional outlets including the Toronto Star just recently shed light upon the complaint, which represents the latest in a long line of cost-centered actions against the Live Nation-owned ticketing platform. Unlike most of the similar legal battles that Ticketmaster is facing, however, this newest suit is being spearheaded in Canada, according to the mentioned newspaper.
Filed on behalf of a fan by Montreal-based law firm LPC Avocat, the complaint indicates that the plaintiff purchased two “Platinum” passes to the forthcoming “It’s All A Blur” tour from Drake and 21 Savage (specifically for a July 14th stop at the Bell Centre) for $789.54 apiece, per the Star.
But the UMG-signed act is said to have added another Bell Centre show (for the 15th) to the concert series the following day, and tickets for the same seats reportedly cost approximately $350 less at the follow-up gig.
Consequently, the filing firm and the allegedly ripped-off customer maintain that Ticketmaster “concealed” the second concert’s details in an effort to “squeeze out” the maximum profits from the first gig, per the report.
“The result is that most, if not all, of the tickets advertised and sold as ‘Official Platinum’ are neither ‘premium tickets’ nor ‘some of the best seats in the house’ and are, in fact, just regular tickets sold by Ticketmaster at an artificially inflated premium in bad faith,” the class-action suit’s application is said to allege of the Live Nation subsidiary’s control over Platinum passes.
The suit must be approved by the Quebec Superior Court to proceed, the Star relayed, noting also that the filing parties are seeking CA$300 in punitive damages for each eligible customer as well as compensation for the difference between the prices charged for Platinum tickets and “what their regular price ought to have been.”
On its website, LPC Avocat bills itself as a “class action law firm focused on protecting consumers’ rights across Quebec and Canada.” Additionally, the website likewise shows that the above-described action isn’t the seven-year-old firm’s first swipe at Ticketmaster, which settled a different case levied by LPC in 2021, according to a copy of a “settlement agreement.”
The agreement further states that Ticketmaster denied “any wrongdoing or liability” but nevertheless paid about CA$484,770, or CA$378,770 total for the estimated 37,877 class members and CA$106,000 in legal fees.
Earlier this month, The Cure supporters took aim at Ticketmaster for allegedly charging massive fees on the UK-based group’s tickets, and the platform (along with Live Nation) towards March’s start moved to compel arbitration in a stateside class-action suit concerning passes to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.