SeatGeek is facing a new class action lawsuit accusing the ticketing platform of violating California privacy laws by installing tracking technology that allegedly shared personal user data with third parties without consent.
Filed August 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the complaint was brought by California resident Jose Torres on behalf of other users of the site. The lawsuit claims SeatGeek embedded Meta and TikTok tracking pixels on its platform that collected identifying details such as phone numbers, emails, IP addresses, and browsing activity from website visitors. That information was allegedly transmitted to the social media companies without proper disclosure or court authorization.
The complaint argues that this conduct violates California’s “trap and trace” law, a provision of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), which prohibits the use of technology to capture identifying information from communications without a court order. Torres and the proposed class are seeking statutory damages, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees.
According to the filing, the trackers enabled SeatGeek to “deanonymize” website visitors for targeted advertising purposes, even if users did not have accounts with TikTok or Meta. The lawsuit compares the technology to a digital fingerprinting process that can match otherwise anonymous visitors with their personal profiles on those platforms.
The suit further alleges that SeatGeek’s privacy practices disproportionately impact California residents, noting that the company markets events in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, and incorporates California-specific language into its user terms of service.
SeatGeek, founded in 2009 and headquartered in New York, is one of the largest secondary ticketing marketplaces in the United States. The company has not yet responded publicly to the lawsuit. TicketNews has reached out for comment.
If certified, the proposed class would include all California residents whose identifying information was shared with Meta or TikTok after visiting SeatGeek’s website during the relevant period.
