Rule No. 1: Don’t make Swifties angry, because the likelihood of having to grapple with a Taylor-crazed lawyer is high given the pop star’s massive appeal.
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Dozens of Taylor Swift fans – mostly lawyers – have joined forces for a Ticketmaster take down after the ticketing site erupted into chaos during the Eras Tour pre-sale and cancelled the public on-sale altogether for Swift’s upcoming run of shows.
Amid the controversy, action was taken by Blake Barnett to rally Swifties everywhere, Mashable reports. On Nov. 16, Barnett tweeted, “calling all swiftie lawyers: lmk if you wanna be added to a [group chat] to brainstorm if there’s anything we can do to take actions against @ticketmaster.”
She called the group chat “Vigilante Legal,” and, in less than 24 hours, around 35 pro bono Swifties had called court in session. The outlet noted the group is now a full-fledged LLC. Another string of tweets from Barnett revealed the group’s participants were “reporting Ticketmaster to the FTC [Federal Trade Commission] and drafting a brief to hopefully use to assist state [attorney generals] and politicians in taking them down.”
“Something needs to be done. They’re violating antitrust laws,” Barnett said in conversation with the Mashable, echoing many concertgoers’ recent frustrations. “The monopoly merger should have never been allowed to happen between Live Nation and Ticketmaster.”
Vigilante Legal launched their campaign against the ticketing site on a Swift fan platform, called The Swiftiest. The site reads, “Vigilante Legal is uniting Swifties and fans of music everywhere to end the era of outrageous fees, hours-long queues to nowhere, glitchy processing and terrible customer service has to end.” The call to action reportedly received around 1,000 sign-ups in just 24 hours.
“There’s no fan base better suited to taking Ticketmaster down,” the page continues. “We have a massive, engaged online community; our collective power has the potential to effect real change across the music industry if we work together to make it happen.”
Along with the mobilized Swifties, the United States Department of Justice recently launched an antitrust investigation into Live Nation Entertainment, the company that was born from the merging of Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2010. According to The New York Times, the investigation “is focused on whether Live Nation Entertainment has abused its power over the multibillion-dollar live music industry.”
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