A federal appeals court rejected a class-action antitrust suit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster on the grounds that buyers forfeited their rights to sue by agreeing to the Terms of Use, Billboard reports.
The 24-page ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that customers can only file suit against the ticketing giant in private arbitration, rather than in open court. Originally filed in 2020, the lawsuit was denied by a lower federal court in 2021 before reaching the Ninth Circuit on appeal.
Read more: US: Judge dismisses antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation
“At three independent stages—when creating an account, signing into an account, and completing a purchase—Ticketmaster and Live Nation webpage users are presented with a confirmation button above which text informs the user that, by clicking on this button, ‘you agree to our Terms of Use,’” Judge Danny J. Boggs wrote on behalf of the panel. “A reasonable user would have seen the notice and been able to locate the terms via hyperlink.”
The suit had previously been dropped by a lower court on the grounds that Live Nation customers had agreed to settle any such disputes in arbitration. The plaintiffs appealed, arguing that consumers were being misled because the arbitration agreement had not been presented in a clear way.
The ruling came as Live Nation and Ticketmaster are facing more scrutiny over their market power in the wake of errors while selling tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
