Attorney General Probes Taylor Swift’s Ticketmaster Presale After Tickets Resold for $20,000
Taylor Swift stans (aka “Swifties”) and government officials are making Ticketmaster explode because they accuse the platform of not keeping up with demand.
It all started when Taylor announced that she would soon be embarking on a tour that she would take attendees on “a journey through the musical ages of [her] career.”
Swiftie Presale Madness Happens After That
After pre-sale ticket was broadcast live on Tuesday, total chaos ensued as people scrambled for their places to see the “All Too Well” artist perform live.
Ticketmaster ended up crashing due to too many Swifties, the platform described as “historically in demand” in a tweet.
– Ticket seller (@Ticketmaster) November 15, 2022
Understandably, Twitter was soon filled with disgruntled Swifties expressing that it was completely impossible to actually win Taylor Swift’s ticket.
Taylor Swift’s pre-sale of tickets is proof that the hunger game can really happen in real life
– Abi (@abiwilk_) November 15, 2022
i want taylor swift herself to try to get tickets to her own show
– brie ✨ (@bettykissitbttr) November 15, 2022
Not now, dear mom, is behind more than 2000 people queuing for Taylor Swift tickets pic.twitter.com/TY1yDm6CqG
— jordan will be on the eras tour on April 14 (@kinggoodies_) November 15, 2022
Waiting in line @taylorswift13 tickets for 8 o’clock today. And @SeatGeek charged me 14 times over for tickets that I could never afford. So now my bank account (happens on multiple cards) is frozen, I’m bankrupt, it overdrafts my account and I’m NOT getting the ticket pic.twitter.com/OlbDiwPVr2
– Sydney Wallace (@SydneySarah1) November 16, 2022
girls don’t want boyfriends or girlfriends, they want taylor swift concert tickets
– Era Tour (@tswifterastour) November 16, 2022
taylor swift concert tickets like PS5 for women
– Ali (@aliiscrying) November 15, 2022
Tennessee Attorney General Investigates Taylor Swift’s Ticketmaster Presale
With so much talk about the Ticketmaster situation, it’s no surprise that it attracted the attention of a number of notable political figures.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) took to Twitter on Tuesday to criticize Ticketmaster for being a “monopoly” that should be removed.
Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, a merger with LiveNation was never approved and they need to be dominated.
Break them out.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 15, 2022
Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and David Cicilline (DR.I.) shared similar thoughts on this topic.
Farewell Ticketmaster. https://t.co/oFxUrNmfSs
– Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 15, 2022
.@Ticketmasterwaiting times and excessive fees are completely unacceptable, as seen with today @taylorswift13 tickets, and is a symptom of a larger problem.
It’s no secret that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is an unregulated monopoly.
– Representative David N. Cicilline (@RepCicilline) November 15, 2022
In fact, the Swifties drew so much attention to the Ticketmaster situation that the Attorney General of Tennessee, Jonathan Skrmetti (right), stepped in and announced that he would initiate an investigation, WSMV report.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is concerned about consumer complaints regarding @Ticketmasterpre-sale of @taylorswift13 concert tickets. He and his Consumer Protection team will use every tool available to ensure that no consumer protection laws are violated.
– TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) November 16, 2022
He further explained his intentions in a press conference on Wednesday.
“If it is a violation of consumer rights and we can find out exactly where the problem lies, then we can ask the court to order the company to do better. That ensures that the problems that happened yesterday will not happen again,” Skrmetti stated. “I hope the company is doing everything it can to make sure customers, from today on, have a much smoother and fairer experience.”
Ticketmaster’s Feedback
After firmly sitting in the hot seat, Ticketmaster’s representative directly resolved the controversy. statement on Thursday and promised to do better in the future.
“We are always working to improve the ticketing experience. Especially for high sales demand, which continues to test new limits,” the statement read. “While not everyone has tickets to these shows, we know we can do a lot more to improve the experience and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Greg Maffi, CEO of Liberty Media, is affiliated with Ticketmaster, according to CNBC—also about the situation. In particular, he seems to have tried to place the blame on factors outside of Ticketmaster.
“In fact, it’s a function of the great demand that Taylor Swift has. The site is supposed to be open to 1.5 million Verified Taylor Swift Fans. We had 14 million people visit the site — bots included, another story that shouldn’t have been there,” Maffi said.
However, for those unable to secure pre-sale tickets for The Eras Tour, there is still hope, as tickets will be sold to general public starting Friday.
What do you think of the Ticketmaster situation?
