Ticketmaster Will Refund Tickets for Postponed and Canceled Events

Ticketmaster issued an official statement on April 17 regarding the policy of refunds on canceled and postponed events. The statement was signed by Jared Smith, the president of Ticketmaster. It reads that Ticketmaster is giving the assurance that the company, together with its clients, intends to honor its "longstanding practice of allowing refunds on canceled or postponed events."

On its system, Ticketmaster has 55,000 events around the world from March 1 up to the end of this year. It accounts for more than $2 billion in ticket sales. The company faced challenges when the shows and events were either canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Large public gatherings have been prevented to avoid further spread of the coronavirus.

The company stated that Ticketmaster is a platform that permits the event organizers to sell tickets directly to interested patrons. Once tickets are sold, the money is sent to organizers on a week-to-week schedule, according to their usual practice. The company claimed it had already given more than $2 billion to the organizers based on the 30,000 events which have been postponed or canceled. With the huge amount of disbursements, the company reiterated it is no longer possible to issue refunds immediately to the consumers before regaining it back from the organizers.

Ticketmaster further said it aims to refund as many tickets as possible in "as timely a fashion as is feasible." It continued to promise that the platform is working daily to achieve its intention.

As of now, 30,000 events have already been affected. Out of that, 12,000 were canceled, which the company confirmed had been granting refunds to the consumers. Another 5,000 events have been rescheduled, and the event organizers have given authority to Ticketmaster to issue refunds to ticket holders who would request them.

There are still 14,000 events that promoters are seeking to reschedule, including concerts, sporting events, and Broadway shows. However, all these depend on the development of the situation since the pandemic's thinning out is unpredictable. With the possibility of the events to be moved to new dates or will eventually be scrapped, Ticketmaster guaranteed to coordinate quickly with the organizers for the refund process.

Smith reiterated in the statement: "neither our clients nor Ticketmaster, intend to withhold refunds on postponed shows." He further said that event organizers Live Nation Entertainment and AEG Live have publicly announced their refund guidelines. AEG will start to return payments on May 1 to its patrons.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster have caused an uproar from fans last week when it inadvertently "revised" the policy that only canceled shows will be issued with refunds. Fans were quick to vent their frustrations on social media, citing the company's insensitivity to the sufferings of the consumers.

Artists who have previously announced cancellations or postponements are Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish (postponed U.S. and Canada shows), Dua Lipa, BTS, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, among others.