Customers paid $9 a month but got nothing in return
Ticketmaster has agreed to settle a suit alleging that customers who enrolled in the Cheap Converse Shoes ticket service’s “rewards” program shelled out $9 a month and got nothing in return.
Judge Dale Fischer, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, has approved payments totaling up to $23 million.
The settlement covers around a million consumers who enrolled in the rewards program between September 2004 and June 2009. Each class member is eligible to receive up to $30, less than the $75 that the average rewards member lost. The class claims that Ticketmaster made $85 million on the program.
Fully 93% of those who enrolled in the rewards program never took advantage of its purported offers. Ticketmaster denies any wrongdoing, and says it disclosed the monthly fee along with all other terms and conditions.
Settled suits before
The settlement isn’t Ticketmaster’s first rodeo: in 2009, the ticket giant settled a suit brought by the New Jersey attorney general alleging that the company redirected consumers trying to buy Bruce Springsteen tickets to partner site TicketsNow.com, where prices were up to four times higher.
In 2011, the company settled a class action taking issue with its shipping and “order processing” fees. That settlement offered credits to consumers who made a purchase between October 1999 and October 2011.
Ticketmaster has been “The Most Hated Brand in America,” and has been the target of federal officials including Milgram and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. Reno’s Justice Department led a short-lived antitrust investigation in the 1990s, after iconic ‘90s grunge band Pearl Jam complained about markups that Ticketmaster added to tickets for a concert. Pearl Jam boycotted Ticketmaster until 1996.
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