Madonna Moves to Dismiss Lawsuit Alleging Late Concert Start Time — ‘Fans Got Just What They Paid For: A Full-Length, High-Quality Show by the Queen of Pop’

Madonna, Live Nation, and the Barclays Center have actually transferred to dismiss a class-action grievance imposed by 2 people who state they suffered “real and substantial damages” due to the artist’s apparently late show start times.

Counsel for the offenders simply recently prompted the court to toss the fit, which was sent in mid-January. As we reported at the time, the problem– among a number of such actions led by the complainants’ lawyers, according to the suitable sites– rather remarkably fixates the time at which Madonna carried out as part of her continuous trip.

A December 13th Barclays Center program, the very first of 3 successive Celebration Tour performances in the Big Apple, was “assured to start at 8:30 p.m,” per the preliminary grievance. “Madonna did not take the phase up until after 10:30 p.m. on all 3 nights, with many show participants leaving the Barclays Center after 1:00 a.m.,” the New York City-based complainants composed.

These complainants preserve that they “would not have actually spent for their tickets had they understood” about the schedule, with particular guests having actually supposedly been “left stranded in the middle of the night since they missed their set up trip home or public transport and some personal transport was restricted” when the performance blurt.

As discussed at the beginning, the offenders have actually unsurprisingly fired back versus the claims (amongst them incorrect marketing, breach of agreement, and New York business-law offenses), advising their termination and questioning whether the complainants undergo an arbitration provision.

On the previous front, counsel for Madonna passed on that “an affordable concertgoer would comprehend that the place’s doors will open at or before the ticketed time,” with “several opening acts” (Honey Dijon at the December 13th program) then carrying out before the headliner takes “the phase later on at night.”

The complainants weren’t damaged (they “do not plead any injury that they themselves suffered by investing the night at an ‘unbelievable’ performance”) and need to have understood of the most likely start time offered what they acknowledged as “the years-long history of Madonna getting here a number of hours late to prior performances,” per the filings.

“But fatally, Plaintiffs do not declare that they suffered any such ‘injury,'” the offenders defined for excellent step. “Neither Plaintiff declares that he experienced problem getting home or increased transport expenses.”

Barely stopping there, the accuseds’ legal group likewise kept in mind the possibility of deposing the complainants, who, the lawyers repeated, might go through Ticketmaster’s significant arbitration stipulation. (We’ve reported on the latter, the credibility of which has actually been unsuccessfully challenged by various litigants, a variety of times throughout the years.)

The complainants’ counsel supposedly “would not offer” info about where the filing celebrations had actually bought their tickets, the termination file suggests, explaining that Madonna and Live Nation reserve the right to dismiss or oblige arbitration “must discovery expose they [the plaintiffs] consented to the Ticketmaster regards to usage or other regards to usage that need arbitration.”