In 2003, two men who purchased tickets to a Wilco and Bruce Springsteen concert filed a joint lawsuit against Ticketmaster, alleging that the American ticket sales company mislabeled its service charges. The case later became a $386 million class-action lawsuit (Schlesinger v. Ticketmaster), which Ticketmaster recently settled.
According to the settlement, Ticketmaster’s fees were "deceptive and suggested that Ticketmaster's expedited delivery fee and order processing fee, read in the context of the description of other Ticketmaster fees that allegedly were deceptively described too, were the same as or based on expedited delivery and order processing costs."
In accordance with the settlement, the company has to pay up $420 million over the course of four years to fans. As a result, anyone who purchased tickets between Oct. 21, 1999 and Feb. 27, 2013 using Ticketmaster’s website is eligible to receive anywhere from one to 17 vouchers.
There are three different types of free tickets: one offering $2.25 off any ticket, one for a $5 deduction toward a UPS delivery and general admission seating tickets for events at venues owned or operated by Live Nation Entertainment. The company announced that it would be doling out $10 million in tickets through May 2017 and has reportedly sent out $386 million worth of discount codes to almost 57 million people.
To redeem the free tickets, consumers have to sign in to their Ticketmaster account and access the voucher codes, which are available on a first come, first serve basis. Then, users have to select an event -- the free vouchers cannot be applied to all events, but Ticketmaster has created a website listing which events are in the clear -- and complete the purchase process. On the billing page, there is an area for “Voucher Code,” where users enter their custom code.
There are several loopholes in Ticketmaster’s offerings, reports Quartz. For example, each person is limited to 17 vouchers, users have to make a purchase in order to earn the discount and each show can only accommodate 100 voucher-holders.
