Vivid Seats $7.5 Million Covid Refund Settlement Approved

Vivid Seats LLC’s $7.5 million settlement of class action claims that it failed to issue full refunds for shows canceled due to the coronavirus won final approval by the Northern District of Illinois.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved the agreement Monday over the opposition of a handful of objectors.

“While the relief does not quite make every claimant entirely whole, it comes close,” Judge Robert M. Dow Jr. said. “Only in a rare case, where liability is overwhelming, will class plaintiffs obtain a full and complete recovery,” he said.

The settlement includes a payment of $2.25 million in attorneys’ fees to be drawn from the total fund. The award was reasonable given that the class obtained “an almost full recovery on claims that were not without risk from a legal perspective,” the court said.

The settlement also provides incentive payments of $2,500 to each of the lead plaintiffs.

The court certified a settlement class of purchasers who alleged the ticket reseller violated its 100% guarantee by failing to provide a full cash refund for all amounts including fees paid for tickets to canceled or constructively canceled events for which there is no rescheduled date.

The class is estimated at “many thousands” of members, consisting of all people residing in the U.S., its territories, or Canada who bought a ticket through Vivid Seats to an event later canceled, postponed, or rescheduled.

Settlement class members are entitled to submit a claim for a cash payment from the settlement fund equal to the purchase price of the ticket to the canceled event.

Liddle & Dubin PC represents the plaintiffs.

Latham & Watkins LLP represents Vivid Seats.

The case is Nellis v. Vivid Seats LLC, N.D. Ill., No. 20-cv-02486, 11/1/21.