Taylor Swift Being Sued for Keeping $2.5M from Cancelled Concert

Taylor Swift, the biggest music star on the planet right now, is being sued over a hoedown debacle that was to be held in Canada last year. At first, the details of the lawsuit released by TMZ were scant at best. Now that more of them have been released, they’re just downright confusing.

The story goes like this. An event titled the Capital Country Hoedown was supposed to take place in August of 2012 in Ottawa, Canada. A month prior to the event however, organizer Denise Benoit cancelled it, stating zoning issues as well as lack of a venue as the reason. At the time, the cancellation didn’t make a lot of news, but the 15,000 who had already purchased tickets — largely based on the fact that Taylor Swift was headlining the event — wanted their money back. And that’s where things get kind of tricky.

The credit card companies provided refunds to their customers, and charged those refunds to Evo Merchant Services, the New York-based credit card payment processing company. Evo then filed a claim in New York against FIRE USA Inc., the company in charge of handling ticket sales. FIRE USA Inc. then turned to Swift, saying that a deal had already been struck with the superstar and that in fact, she is the one that’s actually responsible for the $1.8 million worth of ticket refunds.

According to FIRE, the organizer had struck a deal with the Messina Group, Swift’s management company. That deal gave Swift a $2.5 million advance for performing at the event, and Swift had never repaid that money. Provided that Swift had never rescheduled a new performance, FIRE is claiming that she is in breach of contract.

While TMZ has reported that the lawsuit has been filed in court, none has been proven as of yet. And as for Taylor? Her representatives are saying that no deal was ever arranged, nor have they even yet heard of this lawsuit. Neither Benoit, Evo, FIRE,or Messina Group has been available for comment on the legal action.

Do you think Taylor should be on the hook for an event that was obviously poorly organized? And do you think anyone will attend Benoit’s next event — another hoedown she says she has in the works for 2013 in Ottawa?

Categorized in: Concerts