ATLANTA, GA – DECEMBER 9: Rapper Drake performs onstage during “Lil Baby & Friends Birthday Celebration Concert” at State Farm Arena on December 9, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Prince Williams/Wireimage)
Ticketmaster is facing more accusations of price gouging on concert tickets, and this time it comes on behalf of Drake fans.
The Canadian superstar rapper and singer is going on tour this summer for the first time since his European tour in 2019. And fans are already doing everything they can to secure their seat for the much-anticipated show.
After the Grammy winner announced the “It’s All a Blur” tour – featuring fellow rapper 21 Savage – on Instagram, fans immediately took to the Ticketmaster site to snag their seats. While some fans were happy with their huge purchase, some fans noticed something was a little off.
One Montreal man claimed that Ticketmaster intentionally misled “consumers for their own financial gain” after he purchased tickets to Drake and 21 Savage’s upcoming tour.
Ticket prices for the tour were reportedly advertised at $69 on Ticketmaster, but some fans reported seeing tickets starting at $400 and third-party ticket sites like SeatGeek have tickets on sale for up to $16,999 in certain cities.
According to the Toronto Star, a class-action lawsuit was filed by his law firm LPC Advocat Inc. after he purchased a pair of “Official Platinum” seats for Drake’s July 14 show at the Bell Centre.
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When the tickets were purchased, the man paid $789.54 for each ticket, but when Drake announced a second show at the Bell Centre the following day for the same "Platinum" seats, the price dropped to $350.
The lawsuit claims that Ticketmaster knew there would be a second show at the Bell Centre but “concealed this information” to “squeeze out” money from fans.
“Ticketmaster unilaterally decides which tickets it advertises and sells as ‘Official Platinum’ based on a given event,” the suit reads. “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.”
The plaintiffs in the case are seeking compensation in the form of “the difference between the prices charged for ‘Official Platinum’ tickets and what their regular price ought to have been” plus $300 per customer in damages.
This isn't the first time that Ticketmaster has faced pricing issues. In the last year, the ticketing site faced two separate class action lawsuits after problems with the rollout of Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour.”
This also comes just weeks after fans began finding ways around Ticketmaster’s high ticket prices for Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” tour. Some fans even opted for a cheaper option by flying to Europe instead.
Neither Drake nor Ticketmaster has commented on the prices of the tickets or the suit.
