Ticketmaster hidden fees settlement credits expected in 2025 following class-action lawsuit by Regina lawyer

A longstanding lawsuit against Ticketmaster is nearing its end, with a judge expected to approve the more than $6 million dollar settlement before the end of the year.

It’s the result of a class action lawsuit Regina-based lawyer Tony Merchant launched in 2018 over ticket prices and practices, specifically what he called “drip pricing.”

“Drip pricing means you phone and you think you're going to pay $229 for a ticket, and then they tell you, you have to pay a stage fee, and then they tell you have to pay a parking fee,” Merchant said. “So, you're on the computer, you thought you could buy for $229 and you end up buying for $290. The problem is you can't really disconnect and come in again because all the tickets will be gone.”

“So, it unfairly tricked people into paying more money for really the same thing,” Merchant added.

The settlement will see a Ticketmaster credit given to people who bought tickets in Canada between Jan. 1, 2018 and June 30, 2018.

In a Regina courtroom Friday, a judge said he expected to formally approve the settlement by Christmas. Merchant said that means he’d expect those eligible to receive notifications about the credit sometime in 2025.

• Get the CTV News app for Saskatchewan breaking news alerts and top stories 

“People will receive an email, and all they will have to do is click to recover based on the email,” Merchant said. “So, they'll be told you're eligible and you click to recover. If they don't get an email and they think they might be eligible because perhaps their email has changed, it's open to them to make contact with our law firm.”

The defendant, Live Nation Entertainment, has denied any wrongdoing in the case but agreed to what its lawyers called “a fair and reasonable settlement” worth a total of $6,027,000 in credits.

Depending on the number of people who take up the settlement, those eligible could receive a Ticketmaster credit worth up to $45 to be used on a future ticket purchase. The credit is transferable and does not expire but can only be used once.

“Well, $45 isn't going to get you into Taylor Swift anytime soon. But that’s the kind of loss people suffered and recovering million and millions of dollars for the class is important,” Merchant said. “It’s also important that we were part of stopping Ticketmaster from continuing this practice, which they might have argued was legal, but it was certainly deceptive.”

Merchant estimated that roughly 100,000 people in Saskatchewan are eligible for the settlement, and approximately one million people in Canada.

CTV News has reached out to Ticketmaster and Live Nation for further comment on the settlement.

-With files from Ryan White and Joey Slattery