Ticketmaster clamps down on scalping and cancels thousands of Harry Styles tickets
Ticketmaster has reportedly caught a major scalping operation in the act, after vowing to return “thousands of illegal” Harry Styles tickets for his New York City residency back to deserving fans.
Earlier this year, Styles released his new album, Dance All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, and announced several residencies in Amsterdam, London, São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne, and Sydney, in support of the release.
He received much criticism as the tickets for the shows, including 30 nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden, reached extortionate prices; the most expensive VIP package for access to the performance in the Big Apple was priced at $1,667.
Now, Ticketmaster president, Saumil Mehta, shared an update on the in-demand shows via social media, and stressed that the organisation is “working with Harry and his team to help real fans.”
He revealed that the organisation “caught scalpers using multiple accounts and fake identities to try to get around ticket limits and resell tickets for profit.”
Mehta went on, “We’ve canceled those tickets, none of which had been transferred to fans, and we are working with the tour to release them back to fans at the original price.”
He explained, “You may have seen us take similar action on other tours recently. It’s all part of our broader effort to identify and catch more bad actors, enforce the rules of the sale, and permanently ban accounts that violate them.”
Mehta then explained that fans can now request tickets with the original prices set initially by the tour: 19 percent of available tickets were priced at $50, with 77 percent totalling under $95. All of Styles’ tickets were meant to be under $130.
In light of the recent shake-up, fans newly interested in attending Styles’s shows are now required to submit a ticket request through Ticketmaster. Fans who don’t have tickets to the New York shows will be prioritised, but anyone can request the tickets that’ve been released.
Interested customers can request up to four tickets for two different shows.
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