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Ticket sales hub Ticketmaster and its umbrella company, Live Nation Entertainment, have been hit with a subpoena following ticketing issues and pricing concerns.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010 to form Live Nation Entertainment and offer tickets to sports and music events, theater, comedy and family attractions.
However, those familiar with the platform may have experienced long digital queues to purchase tickets and high price points when trying to see their favorite team, band or show. These and other issues led a senate subcommittee to subpoena the brands on Monday.
Problems with ticket sales for Taylor Swift's current Eras tour on the platform triggered an outpouring of anger online. Swift spoke out about Ticketmaster in 2022 when the site crashed and exhibited long wait times after pre-sale tickets were released ahead of the tour. A few days later, Ticketmaster canceled the general sale of tickets for the tour because of "extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand."
In November 2022, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced he was launching an investigation into Ticketmaster with Democratic Representatives Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey and David Cicilline of Rhode Island also sharing messages critical of the company.
Rolling Stone on Monday said that an inquiry launched in March "hadn't been publicly reported prior to the subpoena filing, as the company faces broader regulatory scrutiny over potential antitrust concerns."
Senator Richard Blumenthal, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), shared insight into the ongoing investigation on social media.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he stated that Live Nation has "stonewalled" the subcommittee's inquiry.
Live Nation has egregiously stonewalled my Subcommittee’s inquiry into its abusive consumer practices—making the subpoena necessary. This subpoena demands that the company promptly comply with our request for documents essential to understand its business practices. https://t.co/VxIu5gZecZ
— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) November 21, 2023
He wrote: "Live Nation has egregiously stonewalled my Subcommittee's inquiry into its abusive consumer practices—making the subpoena necessary. This subpoena demands that the company promptly comply with our request for documents essential to understand its business practices."
Blumenthal added: "American consumers deserve fair ticket prices, without hidden fees or predatory charges. And the American public deserves to know how Ticketmaster's unfair practices may be enabled by its misuse of monopoly power."
In a letter sent to the entertainment company's CEO, Michael Rapino, Blumenthal listed the points the subpoena covered, along with requesting documentation for "business practices, including the prices and fees for tickets."
The subpoena seeks records related to "Live Nation/Ticketmaster's failure to combat artificially inflated demand fueled by bots in multiple, high-profile incidents, which resulted in consumers being charged exorbitant ticket prices."
The letter also shows that the PSI wrote to Live Nation/Ticketmaster on March 24, 2023, "seeking documents and information in connection with this inquiry." This was a request that the company "failed to fully comply" with, despite having almost eight months to do so.
Newsweek has contacted Ticketmaster and Live Nation via email for comment.
The platform implements a dynamic pricing algorithm, increasing ticket prices in relation to their demand. Ticketmaster Developer's page reads: "Resale listings are dynamically priced, where it can be marked up or down based on business objectives (demands, etc.). The goal is to get consistent price experience for resale purchase starting from choosing offers from TOPPICKS and reserving it via PARTNERAPI."
A spokesperson from Live Nation told Newsweek: "Live Nation has voluntarily worked with the Subcommittee for many months, and we've already provided over 10,000 documents and held several meetings with staff. The subcommittee is seeking additional information about how artists set prices and venues determine fees, but we do not feel comfortable sharing this information without standard confidentiality measures.
"Thus far the Subcommittee has refused to provide such assurances, but if and when those protections are in place we will provide additional information on these topics. We remain committed to working with the Subcommittee and believe there are many paths to improve ticket buying—including letting artists determine resale rules, mandating all-in pricing nationwide, banning speculative ticket selling and more."
Ticketmaster also upset concertgoers in March, when fans hoping see Korean rapper SUGA encountered high prices and long wait times when attempting to secure tickets for his tour.
