Live Nation Entertainment is facing three proposed class action lawsuits after it disclosed a cybersecurity incident involving Social Security numbers, government ID numbers and health records. The company says the incident was limited in scope. The lawsuits allege it failed to protect people's data. Much is still unknown, including whether any Ticketmaster customer data was involved.
What Live Nation disclosed
On October 1, Live Nation reported the incident to the Vermont attorney general, TicketNews and Pollstar report. That filing lists two affected Vermont residents and identifies the information involved as Social Security numbers, government IDs and health records.
In a statement quoted by Pollstar, Live Nation said: "Recently, we identified, contained, and secured a cybersecurity incident. Following a thorough internal review and independent investigation by a leading cybersecurity firm, we found the incident was limited in scope and had no impact on our operations. The small number of individuals whose information may have been affected are being notified and offered support to monitor their information."
The lawsuits
Three proposed class actions were filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California: Fraga v. Live Nation Entertainment on October 6, and Gosman v. Live Nation Entertainment and Ramos v. Live Nation Entertainment on October 7. According to TicketNews, they generally allege negligence, breach of implied contract and unjust enrichment, and seek damages, credit or identity monitoring and changes to Live Nation's data security. No class has been certified, and the cases are at the earliest stage.
TicketNews reports that two of the named plaintiffs describe themselves as former Live Nation employees who gave the company their information through their jobs. That leaves open the possibility that the incident mainly involved employee records rather than ticket buyers, but neither Live Nation nor the Vermont filing has said who the affected people are.
Is this the 2024 Ticketmaster breach?
No connection has been established. The 2024 incident involved Ticketmaster customer data stored in a third-party cloud database. TicketNews reports that nothing disclosed so far links the new incident to it.
What fans can do
Nothing public says ticket buyers were affected. Live Nation says the people whose information may be involved are being notified directly. If you get a notice, take up the monitoring offered, and as always, watch for phishing emails pretending to be from ticketing companies.