An Illinois lawsuit against concert discovery site Songkick.com focuses on a familiar online privacy frustration: users clicking "reject all" on a cookie banner and allegedly being tracked anyway, raising doubts about whether online privacy controls work as advertised.
Here's what to know
Zoe Barker and Charissa Baron brought a proposed class action against Songkick and its owners, alleging the site kept tracking visitors even when they had explicitly refused cookies, according to Courthouse News.
The lawsuit alleges that Songkick gathered information tied to users' searches, including artists, events, concerts, dates, IP addresses, and unique identifiers, and then sold that data to third parties.
The complaint involves a platform that Songkick said reaches more than 155 million fans. The company began in 2008 and was bought by Warner Music Group in 2017. Artificial intelligence music generator Suno acquired it in November. Plaintiffs said that Songkick's consent banner asked users to allow the site and 953 partners to use personal information to personalize browsing.
The central allegation is that users clearly rejected cookies and were tracked nonetheless.
"Each interception, disclosure, and use was intentional," the complaint stated. "Defendants' conduct was not the product of an accident or mistake: The tracking fired on every page, for every user, including the users whose 'reject all' selections defendants' own consent-management platform had just recorded."
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The proposed class would include U.S. residents who said they rejected cookies but were still tracked as well as a separate Illinois group.
More background
A concert search can reveal far more than someone's music preferences.
The complaint said those searches can show where a person expects to travel, which events they hope to attend, and even social or political interests connected to particular festivals or causes.
Barker said she used Songkick to look for concerts around Chicago. Baron said she searched for shows in Denver and San Diego while planning a vacation. The lawsuit said that in both instances, rejecting cookies did not stop the tracking.
As Courthouse News summarized, the Federal Trade Commission said cookies are small pieces of data stored in a browser that let websites recognize users and track activity over time. They can support functions such as logins and shopping carts, but they can also be used for targeted ads and broader data collection.
The case cites both the Illinois Eavesdropping Act and Federal Wiretap Act. It also references outside tracking tools associated with Yahoo, Amazon, and Google on the site, arguing that they were "eavesdropping devices."
What's being done?
The plaintiffs asked a DuPage County Circuit Court judge to bar tracking that continues after a user rejects cookies and to order deletion of any data collected that way.
If the case moves forward, it could set a standard for whether cookie banners serve as meaningful protections or simply performative pop-ups.
Websites that ask permission to track users may be connected to vast advertising ecosystems, and most people have little visibility into where that data goes.
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