How Ticketmaster Made It Impossible To Sue Them

Lever Time

The Lever

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.8 • 560 Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment have drawn the ire of consumers — and the Federal Trade Commission — for exorbitant ticket prices, misleading hidden fees, and shady resale tactics. But losing your right to sue Ticketmaster or join a class action lawsuit is now just a click away. Hiding in the company’s new terms-of-use agreement, The Lever found a clause that forces ticket buyers into arbitration, a private judicial system rigged in favor of the company. Today on Lever Time, David Sirota sits down with The Lever’s Luke Goldstein and anti-monopoly attorney David Seligman to reveal how the ticketing company has monopolized the live entertainment market, kept ticket prices high, and is now stripping away your legal rights. Click here to read Luke’s story about TicketMaster’s new terms of use. To learn more about David Seligman’s organization, Towards Justice, click here. Click here for a full transcript of the episode. Get ad-free episodes, bonus content and extended interviews by becoming a member at levernews.com/join.To leave a tip for The Lever, click here. It helps us do this kind of independent journalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:12.1	an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Instead, Donald Trump has decided
0:16.9	to swerve, deflect, and append the Constitution and treat it like a terms and conditions
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1:17.8	The Lever
1:18.7	From The Lever's Reader's Supported Newsroom, this is Lever Time.
1:25.9	I'm David Serota.
1:29.0	If you've ever bought a ticket to a concert or a sporting event, you probably got an email a few weeks ago from Ticketmaster.
1:34.7	It looked boring, something about changing its terms of service. Does anyone even read those emails?
1:40.4	You probably deleted it. Well, we didn't delete it. We at the lever actually read it. And guess
1:46.4	what? It's a really big deal. Buried in the fine print is new language that locks you and everyone
1:53.2	else who buys a ticket into a private judicial system. On today's episode of lever time,
	...

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