Taylor Swift versus Ticketmaster: the latest on the tour that may break up a giant – The Verge

The US government is trying to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster

2024-05-23T10:32:14-04:00

The DOJ alleges that Live Nation holds a monopoly over the ticketing industry. | Image: The Verge / Kenishirotie (via Getty)

The US Justice Department and 30 state and district attorneys general have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, alleging that it has a monopoly in the live ticketing industry that enables it to illegally suppress competition.

"It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster," US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

The DOJ alleges that Live Nation's dominance - which spans ticket sales, promotion, artist management, and venue ownership - has given the company unfair commercial advantages over rivals. In particular, its alleged ticketing mo …

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Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift ticketing fiasco might have just led to a lawsuit from the DOJ

2024-04-16T09:58:41-04:00

The Department of Justice is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit could reportedly come as early as next month and will target the company's alleged monopoly in the live ticketing industry.

Live Nation drew antitrust scrutiny when it merged with Ticketmaster in 2010. But those concerns boiled over in November 2022 when a Ticketmaster crash blocked thousands of Taylor Swift fans from purchasing tickets for the Eras Tour due to "unprecedented demand." The DOJ opened an investigation into Live Nation shortly after, The New York Ti …

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Live Nation-Ticketmaster to disclose full ticket prices upfront

2023-06-15T11:13:30-04:00

President Joe Biden is set to announce that ticketing giants Live Nation and Ticketmaster have promised to disclose the full price of tickets upfront, essentially removing the haunting prospect of hidden fees at checkout, according to Reuters.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster have been the focus of regulatory ire for years, but scrutiny hit a fever pitch last November when Live Nation canceled ticket sales for Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour. While the Swift cancellations were reportedly due to a bot attack, the event became the focus of critics who argue that Live Nation drives up ticketing costs and fees for customers by entering into anti-comp …

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Beyoncé fans may be the next to release their anger at Ticketmaster

2023-02-01T14:51:35-05:00

Fans who want to attend Beyoncé’s world tour will have to get tickets through Ticketmaster. | Photo by Mason Poole / Parkwood Media / Getty Images for Atlantis The Royal

Ticketmaster is about to face its next big test. Just over three months after the Taylor Swift debacle, Ticketmaster will be the place to buy tickets for Beyoncé's upcoming Renaissance World Tour that was announced on Wednesday.

Like with the Taylor Swift presale, people who want to get tickets for Beyoncé's shows in North America will have to register with Ticketmaster's Verified Fan platform. Ticketmaster notes in a blog post that registering does not guarantee that you'll get tickets, and the Verified Fans who actually get a code to buy tickets will be determined by a lottery system.

If you want to register as a Verified Fan for the tou …

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Senators and Swifties take on Ticketmaster in Washington

2023-01-24T14:12:59-05:00

Taylor Swift fans demonstrate outside US Capitol as ticket industry executives testify to congress. | Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images

Months after Ticketmaster botched sales for Taylor Swift's most recent tour, a top executive from its parent company, Live Nation, faced scrutiny over its market dominance on Capitol Hill from senators and Swifties alike.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Live Nation president and CFO Joe Berchtold throughout the hearing on Tuesday, arguing that the company's control over the concert and events industry has harmed consumers. In her opening statement, antitrust committee chair Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called Live Nation's business model the "definition of monopoly."

"As millions of Taylor Swift fans found out last fall, th …

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Taylor Swift fans are suing Ticketmaster over presale disaster

2022-12-04T12:10:52-05:00

Swifties clearly don’t mess around. | Photo by Tommaso Boddi/WireImage

A group of 26 Taylor Swift fans are suing Ticketmaster following last month's ticketing fiasco that left frustrated users unable to buy tickets for Swift's The Eras Tour (via Deadline). In a lawsuit submitted to a California court, the fans accuse Ticketmaster's parent company, LiveNation, of "anticompetitive conduct" that let scalpers snap up a surplus of tickets, resulting in higher ticket prices for the fans who could actually get their hands on them.

In addition to alleging that Ticketmaster forces fans to "exclusively" use the service to purchase tickets at prices "above what a competitive market price would be," the suit claims Ticket …

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The DOJ has reportedly opened an antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster’s owner

2022-11-19T11:58:50-05:00

Ticketmaster had major issues with this week’s Taylor Swift concert presale. | Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

The Department of Justice is investigating Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation Entertainment over antitrust concerns, The New York Times reported Friday. Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010 but have come under scrutiny for largely dominating the live event ticket sales market. Ticketmaster has received renewed attention after it dropped the ball with Taylor Swift ticket sales this week.

The DOJ has reached out to venues and "players in the ticket market" in recent months to ask about the company's practices, according to the NYT, meaning the probe predates this week's debacle. DOJ spokesperson Arlen Morales declined to comment.

…

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Ticketmaster yanked its explanation for the Taylor Swift ticket debacle

2022-11-18T13:14:00-05:00

Where did the explanation go? | Photo by Sven Hoogerhuis / BSR Agency / Getty Images

Update, November 19th 8:12AM ET: Ticketmaster has since reinstated the post on its website with some minor changes. You can see our original story and Ticketmaster's previous post below.

Ticketmaster has taken down its explanation for why buying a ticket to Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour was an absolute disaster. The explanation, titled "The Taylor Swift Onsale Explained," was live in two places on Ticketmaster's website on Thursday and is now gone from both. But because the internet never forgets, you can still read it thanks to Google's cache, and in case that fails, we've embedded it at the bottom of this article.

In its post, Ticketmaste …

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Taylor Swift is just as mad at Ticketmaster as you are

2022-11-18T13:12:06-05:00

Except she’s made a massive bag of money from the whole thing. | Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Taylor Swift has spoken out about the boondoggle that was the Ticketmaster sale for her The Eras Tour, and it doesn't seem like she's saying sorry just for show. In a statement posted to her Instagram story, which you can read in full below, she says that she's "trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward" but that she's "not going to make excuses for anyone."

She doesn't mince words when talking about her fans' experiences with Ticketmaster, saying that "it really pisses me off" what people had to go through to get tickets. She also thanks her fans for wanting to come to her shows, saying they "have no idea how m …

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Ticketmaster cancels its public sale of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets

2022-11-17T15:25:34-05:00

Basically: they sold all the tickets in the presale. | Photo by Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic

Ticketmaster is canceling the upcoming public sale of Taylor Swift tickets after the presale debacle earlier this week. Ticketmaster said it canceled the sale "due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand" in a tweet Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday's presale for Swift's The Eras Tour was a disaster, with Ticketmaster crashing following "historically unprecedented demand." Ticketmaster said millions came to the service to try and buy presale tickets.

Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, …

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