The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to hold their first hearing to address the “Ticketmaster debacle” on January 24th following the Taylor Swift incident that dominated headlines and shined a bigger spotlight on the issues with Tickemaster that have been going on for years.
“The issues within America’s ticketing industry were made painfully obvious when Ticketmaster’s website failed hundreds of thousands of fans hoping to purchase tickets for Taylor Swift’s new tour, but these problems are not new,” Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) wrote. “For too long, consumers have faced high fees, long waits, and website failures, and Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means the company faces inadequate pressure to innovate and improve.”
The committee will examine how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industries harms consumers and artists alike during the meeting next week.
“After years of abuses and indignities, American fans and ticket buyers are crying out for help attending a live event without scrambling or being ripped off,” U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ-09) stated. “The recent Taylor Swift tour fiasco was not an isolated incident but the latest in a long conga line of cases where fans are treated poorly by Ticketmaster and its satellites.”
“It is Congress’s job to help improve Americans’ daily lives an experiences and protect consumers from abusive companies like Ticketmaster. I thank Senators Durbin and Klobuchar and my partner on the BOSS Act, Senator Blumenthal, for focusing on these issues in the Senate.”
