The long-brewing storm between Taylor Swift’s fanbase and Live Nation just found fresh wind. A federal judge in Los Angeles has refused to let Live Nation and its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster, wriggle out of a lawsuit accusing them of turning the Eras Tour sale into a digital stampede that left thousands empty-handed.
Roughly 350 fans — battle-tested veterans of online queues — told the court they never stood a real chance in the 2022 ticket frenzy. According to their complaint, the system buckled under a tidal wave of requests from fans, bots, and scalpers, and the companies’ control over presales left the average ticket-seeker locked out and later funneled toward inflated resale prices.
The judge concluded that the fans had done enough to plausibly show that Live Nation and Ticketmaster may have crossed antitrust lines by keeping an iron grip on the U.S. ticketing market. Claims under California’s consumer protection laws and breach of contract theories also survived the companies’ bid for dismissal.
Not everything stayed on the docket — the court tossed out allegations of fraud and negligence — but the heart of the battle remains intact.
The fans’ legal team celebrated the ruling, calling it a step toward finally confronting the music industry’s biggest gatekeepers in open court. Live Nation, meanwhile, has shrugged off the case as a grab-bag of complaints blown out of proportion.
This lawsuit is only one thread in a larger web of trouble for the concert behemoth. Live Nation is also facing a broader class action over allegedly inflated ticket prices, and it remains locked in a high-stakes antitrust fight with the U.S. Justice Department and several states.
The road ahead looks long — and for the fans, perhaps the first time in this saga where the queue might actually move.
