Live Nation blames Taylor Swift ticket problems on scalpers during congressional hearing

Live Nation Taylor Swift tickets congressional hearing overview: 

• Who: Live Nation blamed issues in the live event ticketing industry on scalpers, during a congressional hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. 
• Why: The hearing was held in response to issues that occurred during the public sale of tickets in November for Taylor Swift’s upcoming “The Eras Tour.” 
• Where: Ticketmaster is used by consumers nationwide.

An executive with Live Nation attributed issues with the company’s recent sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour on scalpers during a congressional hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. 

The hearing was held over lawmakers’ concerns Live Nation is dominating the market for event ticket sales and to find ways to improve competition in the live event ticketing industry, Law360 reported. 

Live Nation came under fire in November following issues with its ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour, with prospective concert goers faced with high prices and service failures that ultimately led to the cancellation of the public sale. 

A class action lawsuit was subsequently filed against Live Nation and Ticketmaster by a Taylor Swift fan arguing the companies engaged in anticompetitive and misleading conduct with the way they handled the ticket sales. 

Live Nation president blames issues with live event ticket sales on ‘industrial-scale ticket scalping’

Joe Berchtold, Live Nation’s president and chief financial officer, told lawmakers Tuesday the issues with the live event ticketing industry can actually be attributed to “industrial-scale ticket scalping,” Law360 reported. 

Berchtold reportedly said Ticketmaster was aware before ticket sales opened that bots would be used by scalpers as a way to purchase the Taylor Swift tickets, but that the actual bot use ended up being three times greater than ever seen before by the service. 

“While the bots failed to penetrate our systems or acquire any tickets, the attack required us to slow down and even pause our sales. This is what led to a terrible consumer experience that we deeply regret,” Berchtold said, according to Law360. 

Lawmakers asked Berchtold, who reportedly apologized to Swift and her fans about the incident, about the Better Online Ticket Sales Act — passed in 2016 to prevent ticket brokers from purchasing large amounts of tickets and reselling them at high prices. 

Live Nation’s president responded that the law — which Live Nation was informed had only led to one case for the Federal Trade Commission — had limitations, but expressed that the company has “an obligation to do better” with enforcing it, Law360 reported. 

A class action lawsuit was filed against Live Nation and Ticketmaster back in 2018 over claims the companies privately worked with scalpers to make additional money selling the same tickets. 

Have you purchased tickets sold by Ticketmaster? Let us know in the comments. 

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