Colorado lawmaker joins bipartisan group investigating Ticketmaster over ‘potential unfair or deceptive practices’ in Taylor Swift ticket sales
By Web staff
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COLORADO (KCNC) — A bipartisan group of six members of Congress is now investigating Ticketmaster over the chaos related to ticket sales for Taylor Swift.
The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce penned a formal letter to Michael Rapino, president and CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s parent company, Tuesday.
In it, the group of lawmakers raises concerns about what it calls a lack of consumer protections built into its ticket-buying website and requested a meeting with company executives.
The six signatories to the letter include U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Morgan Griffith (R-VA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL).
“The recent chaos over Taylor Swift ticket sales is the latest in a series of instances involving potentially unfair & deceptive practices by the ticketing industry, DeGette, whose district includes Denver, Englewood and other metro-area communities, wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “Today, my colleagues & I are demanding answers on Ticketmaster’s practices and what it’s doing to protect consumers.”
“The Energy and Commerce Committee has previously raised concerns about business practices in the live ticketing industry,” the lawmakers wrote. “The recent pre-sale ticketing process for Taylor Swift’s upcoming Eras tour – in which millions of fans endured delays, lockouts, and competition with aggressive scammers, scalpers, and bots – raises concerns over the potential unfair and deceptive practices that face consumers and eventgoers.”
Ticketmaster has not made any public statements about the debacle since Nov. 19, a few days after tickets went on sale. In that Nov. 19 statement, it apologized to fans, saying, “first, we want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans – especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets.”
The company went onto say that demand for tickets was so high, it caused issues with the website, but also broke records.
A company representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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