Ticketmaster faced fresh questions from a US Democratic Senator about its sales practices on Thursday, two days after Taylor Swift fans complained about sales practices, website outages and long wait times at buying tickets for their upcoming U Tour event.
In the letter to Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation Entertainment Inc, Senator Amy Klobuchar expressed "serious concern about the competitive landscape in the entertainment industry. Ticket sales and their damaging impact on consumers.
"Ticketmaster's power in the primary ticketing market isolates it from the competitive pressures that typically push companies to innovate and improve their services," added Klobuchar, who chairs a Senate subcommittee on antitrust issues.
"That can lead to the dramatic service outages we've seen this week, where consumers are the ones paying the price. On Tuesday, Swift fans broke into Ticketmaster's website to find long waits and many unable to purchase tickets.
Ticketmaster said the tour generated unprecedented demand and worked quickly to fix the issues. In his letter, Klobuchar asked Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino to answer a handful of questions, including how much and what percentage the company spent upgrading technology to handle peak demand and tickets to high-profile tours have been reserved for advance sale.
Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Klobuchar's letter. Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010 in a deal approved by the Justice Department. The government can challenge a full merger, but rarely does. Klobuchar said in her letter that she was skeptical about the combination at the time. Ticketmaster has been pissing off artists and fans for decades.
In the mid-1990s, grunge band Pearl Jam decided to tour without Ticketmaster, but found it too unwieldy and returned to the service after 14 months.
Reuters
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