He bought ‘premium’ Drake tickets but Ticketmaster sold ‘nose bleed’ seats, suit says
A man in Canada is suing Ticketmaster, saying the company misled him with its marketing and overpriced the premium tickets he bought for a Drake concert, according to a lawsuit.
George M. and his wife are “huge fans” of the Canadian rapper Drake and decided to buy tickets for his concert in Montreal mid-July, according to a class action lawsuit filed March 21 with the Superior Court of Québec’s district of Laval.
Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
After waiting in an online queue of over 2,000 fans, George selected a pair of seats listed as “Official Platinum” seats and priced at the equivalent of $583 each, the lawsuit said. He had a limited amount of time to purchase the tickets and, since Ticketmaster had announced only one Drake concert in Montreal, a limited number of seat options, court documents said.
In total, he paid the equivalent of $1,168 for two Platinum tickets, the lawsuit said.
According to Ticketmaster’s website, Official Platinum Seats are “premium tickets” which give fans “access to some of the best seats in the house.”
George’s “premium” tickets were for seats in the “nose bleeds,” the lawsuit said. The seats “were some of the worst seats in the house as they are in the 13th to last row” of a 21,000-person arena, court documents said.
The day after George purchased his tickets, Ticketmaster announced a second Drake show at the same arena, the lawsuit said.
For this second show, the pair of seats George bought Platinum tickets for had a Regular ticket price equivalent to $315 each, court documents said. Additionally, other “objectively” better seats were on sale at a lower price and listed as Regular tickets for the second show, the lawsuit said.
“Ticketmaster takes advantage of the consumers’ passion and credulity, especially when the tickets are just released and sold for a popular concert,” the lawsuit said.
“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,” court documents said.
Class action lawsuits in Canada go through a four-step process, according to the Superior Court of Québec: authorization, class action, recovery and end. This case is starting the authorization step. A court will decide whether or not the case moves forward.
Laval is in the province of Québec and about 110 miles east of Ottawa.
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