A mother bought tickets to attend a Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall — but due to her job, she was refused entry.
“They knew my name before I told them. They knew the firm I was associated with before I told them. And they told me I was not allowed to be there,” Conlon told the outlet, which reported that a sign at the venue says facial recognition technology is used to help ensure the safety of guests and employees.
Although Conlon says she isn’t personally involved in any cases against Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which operates Radio City Music Hall, her law firm is, according to NBC New York.
MSG Entertainment has said they have a “straightforward policy” behind the ban, which applies to a number of firms and attorneys involved in ongoing litigation against the company.
“While we understand this policy is disappointing to some, we cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an inherently adversarial environment. All impacted attorneys were notified of the policy, including Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, which was notified twice,” the company added.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free weekly newsletterto get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.
Both Conlon and MSG Entertainment say she was the only person in her group who was not allowed to attend the show.
“I was caught off-guard– I just complied with what they asked me to do and I left my daughter inside the venue with her troops,” Conlon, who was chaperoning the event, toldThe New York Post.
However, MSG Entertainment went on to say in their statement that Conlon was “notified in advance that she would be denied entry.”
“In this particular situation, only the one attorney who chose to attend despite being notified in advance that she would be denied entry, was not permitted to enter, and the rest of her group – including the Girl Scouts – were all able to attend and enjoy the show,” the company said.
As for their facial recognition technology, they said “we have always made it clear to our guests and to the public that we use facial recognition as one of our tools to provide a safe and secure environment and we will continue to use it to protect against the entry of individuals who we have prohibited from entering our venues.““Facial recognition technology is a useful tool widely used throughout the country, including the sports and entertainment industry, retail locations, casinos and airports to protect the safety of the people that visit and work at those locations,” the statement read. “Our venues are worldwide destinations and several sit on major transit hubs in the heart of New York.”
Speaking with NBC New York, Conlon claimed that she thought a recent court ruling made it so that ticket holders “may not be denied entry to any shows.”
“This whole scheme is a pretext for doing collective punishment on adversaries who would dare sue MSG in their multi-billion dollar network,” Sam Davis, a partner at the firm where Conlon works, told the outlet.
“This situation should not happen again,” Davis told PEOPLE in a statement. “It was terrifying for Kelly.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for MSG told NBC New York that they felt confident their policies were in compliance with all laws.
source: people.com
