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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYahoo! I got my Ticketmaster class action settlement!
For those of you unfamiliar with it, Ticketmaster was sued in a class action for ripping off people who bought tickets to concerts, plays, sporting events, and such. Millions of customers getting dinged an extra dollar or two on their ridiculous "convenience" fees, added up to a nice little bonus for Ticketmaster. So I got the class action notice, and didn't opt out, and now, I've gotten my share of the settlement. Ohboyohboyohboy.
My settlement is . . . a discount code the next time I use Ticketmaster. So I have to go back to the company that ripped me off before and buy a ticket through their portal, and they'll knock a buck or two off their convenience fee?
Class action law is so inadequate to the markets that exist today. If Ticketmaster or your cell phone provider stick you with a charge for an extra dollar or two, even in five years they haven't nicked you for a hundred bucks. But if they're ripping off millions and millions of customers every month, that's millions and millions of dollars they're pocketing every month. At the very least, I'd like to see a reform to class action law that sets a minimum payout to class members, say $500, for these rip offs. That would be a meaningful settlement for a lot of consumers, and cause some real financial pain for companies that do this.
elleng
(130,156 posts)JUDGES do. Sounds like a not very customer-friendly settlement.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)The lawyers for the class cut the best deal they could, but class action law as currently written is wholly inadequate to address the business culture we now have.
Response to gratuitous (Reply #2)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
underpants
(182,279 posts)BONUS!!!
JohnnyRingo
(18,581 posts)Unfortunately, that discount is for events that Ticketmaster wants to give a discount for. In other words, if a concert is unlikely to sell out, I might get a discount.
I got another settlement last week for $3.57. I'm not sure now what that was for. I thought it was for Ticketmaster.
Indykatie
(3,691 posts)JohnnyRingo
(18,581 posts)I'm not saying you aren't sufficiently liberal, I'm sure you are, but conservatives for decades have been trying to end class action suits by distributing propaganda that attorneys are "ambulance chasers" and they take too much of a cut (a third!). Their goal is to stop consumers from suing big corporations for claims they call "frivolous".
Proposals for ending the practice would place the responsibility of suing for damages on each and every person affected. Certainly no one is going to hire a lawyer to recover a couple hundred dollars, let alone pocket change, and they know it. Indeed, most consumers don't even know they were ripped off, as in this Ticketmaster case. It's the law firm that investigates damages and take action. We've all seen the late night commercials asking if we took a certain drug back in the '90s. That's setting up a database of clients in a class action lawsuit.
In my view, the $3.57 I received recently may have benefited a law firm, but the company didn't get away with gouging me. Plus the millions they paid in settlement will make them think twice before doing it again. If a company knows consumers have no legal recourse, they would get pretty brazen. At least in my case, they had to buy me a beer, and they didn't like it.
Indykatie
(3,691 posts)My point is that the lawyers come out big winners and the consumers involved in the specific case get very little. The real value in CA suits is that they end egregious activity or practices in the future.
P.S.
I'm Sufficiently Liberal
Ilsa
(61,675 posts)Lawsuits that are not related to health matters. If been in a few, but they've all been business related, not life-or-death issues. What I received was almost nothing.
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)not even in the proximity to our location.
llmart
(15,501 posts)I just got a notice from the Equifax people and the class action suit against them for the breach of data that occurred. I have two options. I can get a nominal amount of money back BUT only if I have, in the meantime, carried some form of credit monitoring with another company, and I have to send them proof of that.
Or, I can opt to receive free, YES, I SAID FREE, continual credit monitoring from THEM.
Now, who doesn't want to received free credit monitoring from the same company who didn't protect their personal information in the first place?