Live Nation is facing a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit over the Ticketmaster data breach earlier this year, where 1.3 terabytes of data was accessed by a hacker group, involving hundreds of millions of customers across the world.
The proposed class action accuses Ticketmaster and Live Nation of negligence, alleging that Ticketmaster failed to protect its customers’ data and did not put in place adequate security measures to prevent an attack. The suit also alleges that Ticketaster did not alert users that their data had been compromised in a timely matter.
The hack is a result of Ticketmaster’s poor data protection procedures, the suit alleges, as well as Ticketmaster’s practice of holding onto personal information — which should have otherwise been deleted. The suit is seeking unspecified damages of at least $5 million.
In an SEC filing, shared on Friday, May 31, Live Nation said it identified unauthorized activity on May 20, 2024, and subsequently, launched an investigation. The hacker group named “ShinyHunters” claimed it cracked the Ticketmaster system and accessed some 1.3 terabytes of data, which includes names, addresses, credit card numbers, phone numbers, and payment details, involving 560 million customers globally. The information was said to be up for sale on the dark web, with an asking price of $500,000.
More than a month after the news first broke, the ticketing giant began to notify impacted consumers. “Relevant customers” were offered a free 12-month identify monitoring service as a part of Ticketmaster’s response to the incident. Impacted consumers do not appear to be satisfied with that response, nor the fact that it took weeks for notification to go out.
Over the past few weeks, dozens of fans have complained that their concert tickets suddenly disappeared from their Ticketmaster accounts, causing ticketholders to lose up to thousands of dollars. Ticketmaster, however, said that user’s passwords were not exposed in the data breach, telling KIRO 7 that “the vast majority of what we’re seeing is because scammers have accessed a fan’s email account.”
This isn’t the only legal trouble plaguing Ticketmaster; the ticketing giant is currently the target of an antitrust lawsuit alongside its parent company Live Nation by the Department of Justice and 39 states, as well as the District of Columbia. The suit aims to break-up the pair, alleging monopolistic and anti-competitive business practices.