American lawmakers to get involved in Taylor Swift ticket controversy
Following uproar from fans who failed to acquire tickets from Ticketmaster for Taylor Swift’s forthcoming Eras Tour, lawmakers have decided to launch an investigation into the company and their practices.
Alarm bells went off when even during the pre-sale fans complained of record wait times and website crashes. This meant that tickets were snapped up suspiciously quickly only for touted tickets to resurface on Stubhub for a whopping $22,700 (£19,100) each.
While StubHub is unrelated to Ticketmaster, this didn’t stop fans and even lawmakers from speculating about problematic practices. Now, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has launched an investigation into the matter.
Ticketmaster initially responded to fans saying that the site was “not down” and that it was merely experiencing some issues due to “historically unprecedented demand” and “millions” of fans flocked to buy tickets.
“Anytime you have that kind of concentration of market share, there’s the risk that the lack of competition will not just drive up prices for consumers,” Skrmetti said of Ticketmaster and their subsidiary Live Nation’s 70% share of the market. “It will also reduce the quality of the product.”
Congressman David N. Cicilline also commented: “Ticketmaster’s excessive wait time and fees are completely unacceptable, as seen with today’s Taylor Swift tickets, and are a symptom of a larger problem.”
Adding: “It’s no secret that Live Nation – Ticketmaster is an unchecked monopoly.” There are now calls to break up the conglomerate, but it remains to be seen whether lawmakers can pass that.
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