The US congresswoman took to Twitter to criticise the ticketing platform.
Yesterday (15 November) Ticketmaster experienced technical difficulties which saw the site crash as Taylor Swift fans attempted to buy presale tickets for the musician’s upcoming 2023 Eras tour – Swift’s first since her 2018 Reputation stadium shows.
In response to this, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticised the ticketing website. “Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly,” she wrote, “it’s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in.” AOC also called for the monoply to be dismantled, adding: “Break them up.”
The Ticketmaster crash resulted in tour tickets being listed for as much as $22,000 on resale sites. Democratic US lawmaker David Cicilline also criticised the situation on Twitter, writing that “Ticketmaster’s excessive wait times and fees are completely unacceptable, as seen with today’s Taylor Swift tickets, and are symptoms of a larger problem. It’s no secret that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is an unchecked monopoly.”
Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it’s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in.
Break them up.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 15, 2022
Ticketmaster, which merged with events promotion company LiveNation in 2010, acknowledged the technical issues. According to Business Insider, Ticketmaster said it experienced “historically unprecedented demand” with “millions” of Swift fans visiting the site to try and secure tickets.
Following the site crash, the ticketing platform shared a statement with “a few updates on the Taylor Swift Eras Tour onsale”, saying that “hundreds of thousands of tickets have been sold”. It also encouraged those waiting in the queue to remain there – with reports of people waiting up to eight hours for tickets. “Thank you for your patience as we continue managing this huge demand,” the post concluded.
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 15, 2022
This isn’t the first time the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation has been condemned. Several congress members from the House of Democrats previously called on the Biden administration to investigate whether it qualifies as a monopoly. In April last year, they addressed a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission Rebecca Slaughter calling on them to launch an investigation into Live Nation Entertainment’s “potentially unfair, deceptive, and anticompetitive practices” in order to “protect consumers future access to live events”.