- On Tuesday, Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour “Eras”, tickets went on sale for pre-sale.
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain tweeted their criticisms at ticket-sellers
- Customers had to deal with site crashes as well as exorbitant fees when they tried to purchase tickets to the shows of pop stars.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez accused Ticketmaster, a ticket seller, of monopolizing the ticket industry after its website crashed on Tuesday as Taylor Swift fans tried pre-sale tickets.
Ocasio-Cortez seized the opportunity to voice her concern over the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster, the ticket distribution company, and Live Nation the event promoter and venue operator. She is now known as Live Nation Entertainment.
“Daily reminder that Ticketmaster, a monopoly and it’s merger of with LiveNation should never be approved. They must be restrained.” “Break them up,” the New York Democratic Congresswoman tweeted.
Ticketmaster said Tuesday that they had received “historically unprecedented” demand for Swift’s tickets as “millions of” fans flooded the site.
—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 15, 2022
Congress has previously asked Biden to investigate the “monopoly”. In April 2021 the Democratic Reps. Bill Pascrell Jr., Frank Pallone Jr., Jerry Nadler Jr., Jerry Nadler, Jerry Nadler, Jerry Nadler, Jerry Nadler Jr., Jerry Nadler, Jerry Nadler, Jerry Nadler, Jan Schakowsky and David Cicilline, of Rhode Island, sent a letter asking Attorney General Merrick Garland, Rebecca Slaughter and Rebecca Slaughter to reexamine the merger. Variety.
The letter starts with “We write to support strong antitrust enforcement from the Biden Administration,” which includes the sale of tickets for live events. “The overwhelming evidence shows that the merger of Live Nation, the biggest concert promoter in the United States, and Ticketmaster, the biggest ticket provider in the country, caused a severe disruption to competition in entertainment ticketing. This must be reexamined.
Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff, commented on Tuesday that there had been no site crashes during the launch of the administration’s Student Loan Forgiveness Application.
“Over my many years working in both the public and private sector, I have heard people say to me that the government should be run like a business. The team at @USEdgovAnd @USDSKlain tweeted, “We built a Student Loan Forgiveness portal which processed 8 MILLION loans in the first 30hrs without any crashes.”
—Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) November 15, 2022
Twitter users made fun of the website crash. Social media influencer Ellie SchnittTwitter: “When Taylor Swift wrote the great war’, she was actually preparing us to face the Battle of Ticketmaster.”
Ticketmaster issued a statement stating, “historically unprecedented” demand and problems with the website. Those who have already bought tickets are allowed to go. Those still waiting should “hang tight”. The Capitol One presale has been moved to Wednesday, November 16, at 2:00pm local venue time.
—Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 15, 2022
“It’s me. Hi. It’s not me that’s the problem. — Taylor Swift, but also Ticketmaster after its site crashed.
