If you’ve been bitten by Ticketmaster’s sky-high convenience fees, you may have a free show waiting for you — as long as you don’t plan to see it in Colorado.
The ticket sales and distribution company e-mailed millions of vouchers for free and discounted tickets this week after settling a $400 million class action lawsuit in May over its exorbitant fees. The catch? None of the hundreds listed take place in Colorado.
If you’re one of the 59 million people who purchased tickets between Oct. 21, 1999, and Feb. 27, 2013, there are more than 430 upcoming concerts the vouchers may be used toward, including ones by , , and .
The closest events to Denver that are eligible for free tickets are in Albuquerque.
The Ticketmaster lawsuit began in 2003 when two men who bought tickets to Wilco and Bruce Springsteen concerts filed a joint lawsuit claiming that Ticketmaster’s fees were excessive and deceptive. The lawsuit later was given class-action status, and in 2011 the two sides reached an agreement in which Ticketmaster would pay customers back.
Unfortunately, this win may not mean the end of expensive concert fees.
“The reality is that (the settlement) will have little effect on how they or other primary ticketing companies treat consumers with regard to high service fees. On average, ticket fees in North America are the highest anywhere in the world,” Josh Baron, the co-author of said. “Until the industry as a whole resets here — when the focus became squeezing as much money as quickly as possible out of live touring when sales for recorded music plummeted — consumers will continue to face stiff fees.”
E-mails are going out under the subject, “Schlesinger v. Ticketmaster Class Action Settlement — Notice Regarding Discount and Ticket Codes,” so customers might have to check their junk and spam folders. You also can log into your Ticketmaster account and click “Active Vouchers.” The vouchers and free tickets can be used toward 60 percent of all events, according to Ticketmaster.
There are three types of vouchers: A $2.25 discount on any ticket (which can be stacked toward a single event); a $5 discount toward UPS delivery; and two free tickets for general admission seating at any venue owned or operated by Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s parent company.
However, itap unclear how many people will be able to redeem the vouchers. Ticketmaster announced that it will provide $10 million in ticket vouchers through May 2017. The number of free tickets after that will depend on how many $2.25 and $5 vouchers are used. The company has to pay $42 million over four years and at least $10.5 million every year. If the value of the vouchers used falls short of that goal, Ticketmaster will release more free tickets to make up the difference.
The website is experiencing technical difficulties because of the numbers of people trying to access the voucher section.
Find the list of eligible events .
For more information on the lawsuit, visit .
