Live Nation is in the firing line over its inability to stop scalper bots from purchasing Taylor Swift tickets
U.S. Senators have grilled the boss of Live Nation over the lack of transparency relating to concert tickets for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour.
The entertainment company, which owns Ticketmaster is under fire after bots purchased tickets for Swift’s ‘Era Tour’ last year, in an attempt to resell them for a higher price.
Joe Berchtold is the chief financial officer of Live Nation, who apologised to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“We apologise to the fans, we apologise to Ms. Swift, we need to do better and we will do better.”
Senators criticised Live Nation’s fee structure and inability to deal with bots, which bulk buy tickets and resell them at inflated prices.
“There isn’t transparency when no one knows who sets the fees,” Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said.
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn called Live Nation’s bot problem “unbelievable”.
Ticketmaster reportedly occupies more than 70 per cent market share of primary ticket services for major U.S. concert venues.
“You ought to be able to get some good advice from people and figure it out,” Ms Blackburn said.
Ticketmaster cancelled sales of Swift’s tour to the public because of the “high demand”.
The entertainment giant reportedly sold over 2 million tickets, which is enough to fill 900 stadiums.
Taylor Swift said the situation was difficult, and called for accountability for music promoters.
“It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.
“I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could,” she said.
