Swifties - fans of singing sensation Taylor Swift - are going to sue Ticketmaster because they experienced a slew of technical errors and suspected fraud when they were trying to book presale tickets.
Ticketmaster provided two main presale opportunities for tickets to Swift's Eras Tour: a Verified Fan presale and a Capital One Cardholder presale. Both presales were accompanied by a whole host of technical issues: rejected Verified Fan codes, a five-hour queue and glitches. Tickets initially started at prices ranging from $49 to $449 each. The General Onsale, which was an opportunity for those who didn’t participate in presales, was canceled less than 24 hours ahead of time.
Taylor Swift tweeted that "There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I'm trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward. I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could".
Swifties state that Ticketmaster would collect additional fees with each scalper’s resale, because of the company’s monopoly over both primary and secondary markets. Fans alleging fraud and price fixing, are seeking a civil fine of $2,500 per violation. They also accuse company of failure to take action against scalpers and resales, since at presale moment some tickets are already listed for resale for as much as $22,700.
According to American media, the Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into the owner of Ticketmaster. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Ticketmaster "a monopoly" and urged to "break it up". A US Senate antitrust panel will hold a hearing on the lack of competition in the ticketing industry.
"The high fees, site disruptions and cancellations that customers experienced shows how Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means the company does not face any pressure to continually innovate and improve," said Amy Klobuchar, Democratic Senator from Minnesota. "We will hold a hearing on how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industry harms customers and artists alike."