The Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing regarding Ticketmaster and its presumed monopoly on live entertainment ticketing has been set for Tuesday, January 24, 2023, and will live stream at 10:00 am ET.
Ticketmaster has come under scrutiny within the past several months as the comeback of several marquee artists at once highlighted the ticketing platform’s frustrating policies. With Bruce Springsteen tickets reselling for upwards of $5,000 in July and Taylor Swift fans practically crashing the site in November, authorities now have plenty of questions for Ticketmaster’s leadership.
It’s 2023 and @Ticketmaster is still robbing people. $80 for tickets. $59.20 in service fees. No thanks
pic.twitter.com/LatnUxJoLs
— // Bill Kill
(@timmyg43) January 22, 2023
The situation with Swift’s tickets got so bad, Ticketmaster was forced to cancel the general sale of her The Eras Tour tickets, prompting the singer’s fury and sparking a general outcry against it from the likes of Springsteen, Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff, and country star Zach Bryan.
why is ticketmaster calling people and changing their seats i’m scared pic.twitter.com/o8eF041Zjw
— mariah ✧ eras 5/5 (@alltooriah) January 14, 2023
In response, Swifties filed not just one but two class action lawsuits alleging misleading business practices, arguing the company “intentionally and purposefully misled millions of fans into believing it would prevent bots and scalpers from participating in the presales,” but instead allowed “14 million unverified Ticketmaster users and a ‘staggering’ number of bots to participate in the presales.”
Meanwhile, Ticketmaster was fined in Mexico for allegedly ruining a Bad Bunny concert by overselling the venue, although Ticketmaster claimed the problem was fake tickets, not its practices.
You can watch the live stream here.