Taylor Swift Fans Could Get Justice as U.S. Senate Announces Hearing Date for Ticketmaster Situation
Ticketmaster has been a nuisance for live music fans for a while. The situation worsened when the online ticket service merged with Live Nation in 2010. The merger created a nightmare scenario of overpriced tickets with little competition. Ticketmaster recently garnered controversy after its disastrous handling of pre-sale tickets for Taylor Swift’s next tour, leading to a U.S. Senate hearing that could give Swifties justice.
Ticketmaster crashed during the pre-sale for Taylor Swift tickets
The presale for Taylor Swift’s upcoming The Eras Tour, called the TaylorSwiftTix Presale, began on Nov. 15 on Ticketmaster. Millions flooded the website but were left in queues that lasted for hours after the website crashed multiple times. The demand caused Ticketmaster to reschedule the Capital One Exclusive Cardholder presale from Nov. 15 to Nov. 16.
An open ticket sale was set to begin on Nov. 18, but it was canceled by Ticketmaster, who blamed it on “insufficient remaining ticket inventory.” The company also claimed a “staggering amount of bot attacks as well as fans who didn’t have codes” led to a level of demand that the site couldn’t handle.
The Ticketmaster debacle led to many Taylor Swift fans taking legal action against its parent company, Live Nation, with many claiming the company participated in “anticompetitive conduct” and “fraud,” according to Billboard.
An investigation into Ticketmaster had already been ongoing by the Department of Justice to see if the service was abusing its monopoly over the ticket industry. Many politicians spoke out against the website, with the U.S. Senate showing interest in an Anti-Trust hearing.
The U.S. Senate announces date for Ticketmaster hearing
On Jan. 18, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn.) and Mike Lee (R-Ut.) — chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights — announced that the hearing on the lack of competition in the ticket industry will be held on Jan. 23 at 10:00 am.
According to Variety, the hearing will be called “That’s The Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment.” The hearing will be held in front of the entire Senate Judiciary Committee with Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and incoming Ranking Member Lindsay Graham (R-SC). Klobuchar shared a statement regarding the upcoming hearing:
“The issues within America’s ticketing industry were made painfully obvious when Ticketmaster’s website failed hundreds of thousands of fans hoping to purchase tickets for Taylor Swift’s new tour, but these problems are not new. For too long, consumers have faced high fees, long waits, and website failures, and Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means the company faces inadequate pressure to innovate and improve. At next week’s hearing, we will examine how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industries harms customers and artists alike. Without competition to incentivize better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences.”
The Senate hopes to bring competition back to the ticket market
The ticket industry’s lack of a competitive market has long been a problem. The Taylor Swift Ticketmaster situation may be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Durbin and other senators hope to understand the situation better and give consumers an experience that doesn’t drain money from their pockets.
“It’s been more than a decade since Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation, and competition in the ticketing and live entertainment industries has only gotten worse,” Durbin shared in a statement. “Too often, consumers are the ones who pay the price for this market failure. I look forward to this hearing to explore what led to this environment, as well as steps we can take to bring competition back to these industries in a way that puts fans and artists first.”
