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An American appeals court has refused to block a proposed class action lawsuit against Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster that accuses the pair of charging artificially high ticket prices.
The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court has upheld a ruling that states Live Nation could not enforce contract provisions that require ticket buyers to arbitrate their claims rather than sue in federal court.
The company claimed that fans had waived their right to sue when they bought their tickets.
The appeals panel said that the arbitration rules were unfair to consumers and “overtly” beneficial to defendants.
The rules place ticket-holders’ claims in the hands of a new arbitration body called New Era ADR and were described as “unconscionable and unenforceable” by the court.
“Forced to accept terms that can be changed without notice, a plaintiff then must arbitrate under … opaque and unfair rules,” the appeals court wrote.
“The rules and the terms are so overly harsh or one-sided as to unequivocally represent a systematic effort to impose arbitration as an inferior forum.”
The ruling described Live Nation’s ticketing agreements as “so dense, convoluted and internally contradictory to be borderline unintelligible.”
Live Nation finds itself in further legal trouble in separate cases, as it also faces a multi-million-dollar class action lawsuit after a Ticketmaster data breach earlier this year.
It could also face another class action lawsuit for its role in the delayed ticket sales for next year’s Australian Grand Prix.
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