Live Nation is facing a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit over the massive Ticketmaster data breach from earlier this year.
In April, a hacker group operating under the name ShinyHunters seemingly accessed Ticketmaster’s database. They allegedly collected 1.3 terabytes of information, including the full names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, and credit card information of up to 560 million customers. In June, Ticketmaster (which operates under Live Nation) confirmed in a federal filing with the SEC they were investigating the attack.
The proposed class action lawsuit accuses Ticketmaster and Live Nation of negligent behavior prior to the breach. It puts forward that Ticketmaster failed to protect its customers’ data and didn’t adequately adopt security measures to prevent such attacks. Additionally, it alleges that Ticketmaster failed to alert users that their data had been compromised in a timely matter.
The lawsuit considers the hack a result of Ticketmaster’s poor data protection procedures, as well as their practice of holding onto personal information that should have otherwise been deleted, and is seeking unspecified damages of at least $5 million as a result.
According to the suit, millions of Ticketmaster users are now at increased risk of identity theft, fraud, and spam.
The Ticketmaster hack was one of several high-profile cyber attacks that have occurred in recent years. Groups like ShinyHunters exploited the company’s third-party server, which was hosted by the cloud computing company Snowflake. Notably, while the suit faults Ticketmaster for not ensuring Snowflake was using adequate security measures, Snowflake was not officially named in the filing.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, ShinyHunters have stolen 900 million consumer records in hacks that targeted AT&T, GitHub, Pizza Hut, and others. Hacker groups often package stolen personal data to sell to fraudsters or offer up the whole breach for a lump sum/ransom ($500,000 in the case of Ticketmaster).
This isn’t the only legal trouble Ticketmaster and Live Nation have found themselves in. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice filed a sprawling antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, alleging that the company has taken abusive steps to squash competition in the live event ticketing space.