From ‘The Eras Tour’ Debacle To A Data Breach, All About The Live Nation-Ticketmaster Controversy

Live Nation-Ticketmaster is in the middle of another storm that seems dead set on wiping off its monopoly in the live entertainment industry.

Being at the forefront of the industry for decades, Ticketmaster, which is a part of Live Nation Entertainment, has always been associated with controversies related to the issues of iNFLated pricing, monopoly behaviour, customer dissatisfaction and venue ownership. It was only a matter of time before someone intervened and thwarted the firm’s unfair practices before it affected the industry on a larger scale.

But where did it all go wrong? How did Live Nation and Ticketmaster end up at the centre of controversy and facing a major lawsuit? What’s the relation with the ShinyHunters hacking group and what will this mean for the firm’s future?

Let’s find out.

Timeline of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster controversy

Although Ticketmaster’s involvement in unfair practices has been prominent for decades, it was the Taylor Swift Eras Tour that brought the wrath of millions of Swift fans and the lawmakers on the firm.

2022: Taylor Swift slams Ticketmaster over ‘excruciating’ ticket prices

The Eras Tour was bringing Taylor Swift back to the stage after 2018 and as a result, the hype was at an all-time high. Fans were eager to see her perform, which led to a historic demand for the concert tickets. Ticketmaster was the chosen vendor for distributing the tickets for the concert.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

For the Eras Tour concerts, Ticketmaster opted for a verified fan presale system that was intended to combat scalpers. Despite the positive intention, the system restricted the initial pool of available tickets. This combined with the website crash during the busy hours left fans stuck in queues for hours, eventually greeted by error messages and empty carts. Those who managed to get it had to pay higher than usual prices as part of Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing structure.

Fans, who had pre-registered for the presale, were left empty-handed whereas the scalpers used automated bots to snag the tickets, which then appeared on resale sites at exorbitant prices. A ticket that would have cost USD 100 was sold for ten times its original price. Disappointed fans eventually took to social media to express their displeasure with the broken ticketing system.

In a statement posted to her Instagram Stories, the pop singer said she asked Ticketmaster multiple times if they could handle this kind of demand and were assured they could. She further added, “There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward.”

Lawsuits against Ticketmaster followed soon after as the verified fan feature failed to do its job while allowing scalpers to have their way. Critics argued Ticketmaster’s dominance in the ticketing industry allowed them to set unfair terms and control ticket distribution.

2023: Congressional scrutiny brings the spotlight on Ticketmaster

The Eras Tour controversy exposed longstanding issues with Ticketmaster’s practices. It was now evident that Ticketmaster controls a major portion of the live Entertainment ticket market, thus allowing them to set high fees and iNFLuence ticket distribution that favour their partner venues. It was also alleged that Ticketmaster does nothing to tackle the issue of scalping tickets since bots could bypass the security measures easily.

As a result, the outcry from fans and the industry reached the US Senate, which eventually led to Congressional scrutiny in January 2023. Ticketmaster was questioned about its practices with regard to consumer protection and fair comPetition. A few states took action to regulate prices and crack down on scalping habits.

Despite all the measures, Ticketmaster’s technical glitches continued to plague ticket sales for events and the situation is far from improved.

For example, Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour in 2023 faced similar issues as Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour controversy. Despite all the negative attention, the Ticketmaster website faced severe technical issues when met with unprecedented high demands. This again led to a public outcry over dynamic pricing and the general availability of tickets.

23 May 2024: A US DOJ lawsuit is filed to break the monopoly

The US Department of Justice along with 30 state and district attorneys general has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Live Nation that alleges Ticketmaster for creating unlawful monopolies in its market segment. The lawsuit complains against Ticketmaster’s operations related to ticket sales, promotions, artists and venues, all of which eradicate potential comPetition.

Not only does this allow Ticketmaster to charge exorbitant prices for event tickets, but it is also accused of utilising the revenue from the concerts and sponsorships to lock artists in exclusive deals. The suit also states that Ticketmaster signs exclusive deals with venues to hoard all ticketing opportunities.

The lawsuit seeks structural reforms that help in restoring the competition. This could allow consumers to opt for better services with fewer technical glitches and cheaper ticket pricing. New and upcoming organisers will also get a better chance to manage the events while venues could host more musicians as well as different performers.

The Attorney General has mentioned that it plans to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster and end this monopoly over the industry.

The DOJ is currently seeking a jury for the trial and the outcome remains to be seen.

30 May 2024: Ticketmaster faces a massive data breach after getting hacked

If the lawsuit wasn’t enough, Ticketmaster has now been found to be a victim of a massive data breach that puts millions of its customers at risk. This is ironic considering Ticketmaster was on the other side of the table in 2021’s Songkick case. For those in the unknown, Ticketmaster was found guilty of hacking into the database of Songkick, a rival company, and stealing confidential information. The case resulted in Ticketmaster paying USD 10 million as damages to Songkick.

In Ticketmaster’s case, the hacker group, called ShinyHunters, has claimed to have hacked into the company database and compromised the data of 560 million users. The data bank, which weighs 1.3 terabytes, has been made available on the Breach Forums for USD 500,000. The leaked database contains sensitive user information like full names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, partial payment card data, ticket sales data order information and more.

Although Ticketmaster has yet to confirm the data breach, the leaked database in the wrong hands could lead to identity theft and further cybercrimes.

Keep an eye here for all the updates regarding this aspect of the Ticketmaster controversy.

(Hero and Featured Image Credits: Courtesy Kyrylo Kholopkin via Unsplash)

This story first appeared on Augustman Singapore