The post Senate Antitrust Panel Announces Ticketmaster Hearings Following Taylor Swift’s Botched Sale appeared first on Consequence.
Following a frustrating Ticketmaster presale for Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) announced that a congressional antitrust panel will hold hearings into the lack of competition in the live music and ticketing industries, Variety reports. Klobuchar previously called for hearings last week. Dates and witnesses will be fixed later.
The presale of “The Eras Tour” began on November 15, and demand almost immediately exceeded the capacity of Ticketmaster’s website. The ticketing portal crashed for many users, while others suffered lengthy delays, and on November 17 the company was forced to cancel the general on-sale due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and a stock of tickets remaining insufficient to meet this demand”. Swift responded by saying the experience “really pisses me off.”
Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged in 2010 and together they are estimated to control around 70% of the market. The company was reportedly under Justice Department investigation even before Swift’s tour pre-sale, and since then the Tennessee Attorney General has also announced an antitrust investigation.
In a previous statement, Live Nation and Ticketmaster wrote, “As we have repeatedly stated in the past, Live Nation takes its responsibilities under antitrust laws seriously and does not engage in behavior that could justify antitrust litigation, not to mention the orders that would require to change fundamental business practices.
Senate antitrust panel announces Ticketmaster hearings following Taylor Swift’s botched sale
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