Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Photo Credit: Sadia Afreen
Live Nation’s Ticketmaster is battling yet another class action complaint – this time in Quebec, where customers are suing over alleged “excessive, unreasonable, abusive or disproportionate fees.”
Technically, that suit – one of multiple actions Ticketmaster is facing over its alleged anticompetitive practices – dates back to July 2024. But the Quebec Superior Court only recently approved the straightforward action for a full trial.
Especially given the size of the proposed class, it’ll be worth tracking the case in the approaching months. As laid out by the text’s official English translation, the class will extend to all customers who purchased fee-bearing tickets to North American events via Ticketmaster from Quebec between July 2021 and “the date of the final judgment on the merits.”
The open-ended “from within the province of Quebec” requirement is significant; itself home to about nine million residents, Quebec welcomes millions of tourists per year, at least some of whom presumably used Ticketmaster en route to attending live events.
According to the suit, which specifically alleges violations of the Consumer Protection Act, those events include everything from concerts to sports games and exhibitions to “magic, illusion or hypnosis performances.”
When contacted for comment about the allegation of excessive service, processing, shipping, and/or facility fees, Ticketmaster defended its practices and emphasized its all-in pricing approach.
“Fees are split between the venue and Ticketmaster to cover the essential costs of supporting the show from staffing the venue to funding anti-fraud technology and payment processing,” the company communicated.
“Ticketmaster‘s share of service fees is typically around 5-7 % of the total ticket price. We believe the most fair and transparent approach is showing fans the total cost upfront, which we’ve done in Canada since 2018. These fees are also scaled with the ticket price to help keep lower-priced tickets as affordable as possible,” Ticketmaster finished.
In the bigger picture, it’s not a secret that the platform and its Live Nation parent are grappling with (besides a DOJ antitrust suit and an FTC complaint) a number of class actions at present.
Just in passing, this includes Swifties’ Eras Tour suit; a different suit from allegedly shortchanged consumers; and a newer complaint yet alleging the use of illegal surveillance and tracking tools.
To state the obvious, that’s a massive (non-comprehensive) pile of litigation – and one that will most likely get even larger throughout 2026. Worth noting here is the professional background of the plaintiff (and attorney), Felipe Morales, who kicked off the Quebec class action.
According to the filing and the appropriate website, Morales is a co-founding partner at Semperlex Avocats, a Montreal law firm “composed of lawyers authorized to practice in both Canada and Mexico.”
Though the involved suits and measures tend to fly under the radar, regulatory scrutiny also hit Ticketmaster in Mexico last year. Among other things, April 2025 saw the business enroll in PROFECO’s Conciliaexprés mediation service so as “to respond to complaints from consumers in a timely manner.”
Besides committing to providing customer support seven days a week, Ticketmaster Mexico pledged to “[m]ake efforts to ensure that claims are resolved within 21 calendar days,” per PROFECO.
