Summer concert season is about to get a whole lot cheaper. Ticketmaster is finally paying customers in the settlement of a class action suit that was initially filed in 2003. Unlike many settlements of this kind, which often wind up with people receiving a disappointing check for $2, this one could be a lot cooler, because it means the ticket giant is giving away admission to shows!
Okay, that's "free" if you don't count the fact that you have been overpaying for your Ticketmaster tickets for years. The 50 million customers who purchased tickets from Ticketmaster.com between October 21, 1999, and February 27, 2013, are eligible to receive at least one (and up to 17) vouchers good for two free tickets to an event. They'll also receive discount codes (up to 17) for $2.25 toward the purchase of future tickets and, if they arranged for UPS delivery in past transactions, up to 17 coupons of $5 toward future UPS charges. To see what you've got, log in to your Ticketmaster account, click on My Account, and then Active Vouchers.
Many of the details are clearly outlined on ticketfeelitigation.com, the site dedicated to the court case Schlesinger v. Ticketmaster, which complained about the vendor's ridiculously high "processing" fees and shipping charges. While the company, now owned by LiveNation, still denies any wrongdoing and fought the case for more than 10 years, it eventually settled for $400 million, according to Billboard.
There's a catch, however, as there always is. The free show vouchers aren't good for just any event sold on Ticketmaster (could you imagine?). While the site awarded the vouchers on Saturday, it still has yet to list the eligible events where it says it will. Could this mean we're all basically holding 17 tickets to the county fair right now or can we catch the Drake tour?