When a couple separates, who gets custody of their Eras Tour tickets?
A Toronto lawyer took to LinkedIn this week to share an awkward situation one couple found themselves in, after purchasing tickets to see Taylor Swift during their marriage, but separating before the concert.
“The issue was what to do with the tickets from a family law perspective,” Anna-Marie Musson, managing lawyer of M. & Co Law Firm, wrote on social media. “Do they sell them and equalize the proceeds? Or who uses the tickets?”
It’s a prickly issue, given that a single ticket to one of her Toronto shows can cost thousands of dollars on resale sites. Here’s what happened to the couple.
Taylor Swift at the centre of a couple’s separation troubles
According to Musson, one big issue was the time sensitivity — the tickets had value before the Eras Tour’s opener in Toronto on Thursday, but were essentially worthless afterwards.
“It raised legal issues on ownership and asset valuation you don’t traditionally see with concert tickets,” she wrote in the post.
In the end, her team was able to negotiate a deal, of which she wasn’t able to share the details. But Musson reported both parties emerged happy with the outcome.
“This is a win in our books and maybe one or both of them will even be at the concert.”
Musson and M. & Co Law Firm did not immediately respond to the Star’s inquiries.
The disagreement highlighted a real challenge in family law when it came to non-traditional assets, given the emotional attachments that can form, she added in a previous LinkedIn post.
“From sports memorabilia to concert tickets, it’s essential to balance the practical and sentimental elements when clients are parting ways,” she wrote. “Because whether it’s real estate or front-row seats, everyone deserves to protect what’s meaningful to them.”
Why are Eras Tour tickets so expensive?
Tickets to see Swift are worth several times their weight in gold. On StubHub, a single seat for the Eras Tour in the upper bowl of Rogers Centre costs at least $4,000 — more than 20 times the presale price.
Experts previously told the Star the exorbitant prices in secondary markets all came down to supply and demand. Because Swift’s Toronto and Vancouver dates were the last two stops on the Eras Tour, Canadians also had to compete with international Swifties hoping for a last chance to see the tour in person.
It’s made it incredibly profitable for scalpers, who utilize armies of bots to scoop up tickets as soon as they become available.
Ontario’s previous Liberal government tried to target scalpers with legislation that outlawed such bots and cap resale markups at 50 per cent above resale value. But the resale caps were scrapped when Doug Ford came into power after being deemed “unenforceable.”
Eras Tour tickets attracting scams and thieves
Unscrupulous actors have taken advantage of Swifties’ scramble for tickets as scams proliferated online, offering affordable tickets in a ploy to separate buyers from their money.
Peel police have warned of the posts, which often come from hacked social media accounts. “I promise you that no one is swooping in on a white horse trying to sell you cheap T-Swizzle tickets,” a police spokesperson previously said.
Even if you got your hands on genuine tickets to see Swift, there’s no guarantee your passes won’t get stolen right out of your Ticketmaster account.
What to know about the Eras Tour
The first of six Toronto Eras Tour concerts will open at Rogers Centre on Thursday, with the rest scheduled for Nov. 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23.
The highest-grossing concert series of all time is expected to draw more than 500,000 visitors to the downtown core and more than $282 million in economic impact.
Have you secured the highly-coveted tickets to the event? Here’s everything you need to know to navigate the Eras Tour chaos.
