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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said that he would investigate consumer complaints following the chaos that occurred shortly after Taylor Swift’s presale went live on Ticketmaster.
The ticketing website noted that “overwhelming and unprecedented” demand caused the website to crash. The incident led to furious fans, consumer groups, and political figures questioning the ways of the ticketing website, with some pointing out that it is a monopoly.
"An unchecked monopoly": Michael Rapino's Ticketmaster under fire after the website crashes
In 2010, a merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster gave rise to Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. The company is a subsidiary of Live Nation, the CEO of which is Michael Rapino.
Rapino has served as Live Nation Entertainment’s President and Chief Executive Officer since 2005. The company operates in over 40 countries and gets annual revenues exceeding $10 billion. It comprises three market-leading divisions, including Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship.
The company has since faced a lot of heat over its alleged anti-competitive and monopolistic practices. As per reports, the companies control over 70 percent of the primary ticketing and live event venues market.
The consumer group Break Up Ticketmaster's landing page reads:
"They’re hiking up ticket prices, charging rip-off junk fees, and exploiting artists, independent venues, and fans."
The group demands that the Justice Department break off the merger between the two companies.
Apart from fans and consumer groups, various political figures voiced their concerns regarding how Tickemaster works. House Representative Alexandra Oscasio-Cortez reiterated that the ticketing website is a monopoly and that its merger with Live Nation should not have been approved. Taking to Twitter, she wrote:
"Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it's a merger with LiveNation should have never been approved, and they need to be reigned in. Break them up."
Congressman David N. Cicillie also followed up, tweeting:
"@Ticketermaster's excessive wait times and fees are completely unacceptable, as seen with today's @taylorswift13 tickets, and are a symptom of a larger problem. It's no secret that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is an unchecked monopoly."
Meanwhile, White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain wrote:
"Over my years in the public and private sectors, I've had people tell me: If only the government could work like business."
Further continuing:
"Well, the team at @USEdgov and @USDS built a Student Loan Forgiveness portal that processed 8 MILLION applications in the first 30 hours without a crash."
Tennessee Attorney General notes that the website should have been prepared for the popular demand of Taylor Swift's concert tickets
As cited by Bloomberg, Tennesse AG Jonathan Skrmetti said in a press statement that the ticketing website's antitrust violations could be an issue. He further pointed out that the company should have been prepared for a huge volume of demand:
“As an industry player, you would think Ticketmaster would be prepared. Because they have a dominant position, they may have thought they didn’t need to worry about that. This could be an indicator that there’s not enough competition in the market.”
Skrmetti also noted that the website could face penalties to avoid a similar situation from happening again:
"There could be financial penalties, there could be injunctive relief to make sure it doesn't happen again. If the facts and the law call for it... there's a very broad range of potential consequences."
He added that various people have pointed out the severe lack of customer support, while some complained that they were asked to wait for five days before they got a response. He also questioned whether Ticketmaster provided presale codes to the fans who were able to register.
To add to the chaos, despite the Verified Fan presale system in place that curbs third-party websites from selling tickets at a higher price, sites such as Stubhub were selling her tickets for over $2000.
Skrmetti addressed the issue, saying that he was concerned about the ticket company profiting twice off the tickets and facilitating resale:
"Some scalpers are reselling tickets through Ticketmaster for thousands of dollars."
Ticketmaster issues a statement following Taylor Swift's tour tickets scandal
After receiving innumerable complaints on Tuesday, Ticketmaster released a statement via Twitter, touching upon several points related to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour presale. Read their full statement below:
Earlier this month, Taylor Swift announced that she would be hitting the road for her Eras tour, her first since 2018’s Reputation tour. The Eras tour will celebrate the American pop-star’s work right from 2006.
