After a massive fan outrage and national debate, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights is finally moving forward with the probe on Ticketmaster and its monopolistic merger with Live Nation entertainment.
The calls for the investigation came after millions of Taylor Swift fans complained because of the company's botched presale of the Taylor Swift "The Eras" tour last year.
Reports of crashing, hours-long virtual queues, and many online incidents were reported because of the unanticipated number of users who tried to secure tickets for the career-spanning tour of the hitmaker.
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, chairwoman of the said committee, has been particularly outspoken on the incident and the disastrous ticket sale.
According to her, next week's hearing will flesh out how the infamous merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster harms customers and artists alike, especially without the competition to boost their services and fair prices.
"The issues within America's ticketing industry were made painfully obvious when Ticketmaster's website failed with hundreds of thousands of fans hoping to purchase tickets for Taylor Swift's new tour, but these problems are not new," she said in a statement as quoted by Variety. "For too long, consumers have faced high fees, long waits, and website failures, and Ticketmaster's dominant market position means the company faces inadequate pressure to innovate and improve."
Thousands of Swifties have taken to social media to voice out their concerns, with reports even saying that secondary markets had tickets for the concert skyrocket to $24,000.
This has caused particular alarm for Swift, who also voiced her frustration, and other politicians like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Klobuchar, among others.
Meanwhile, Utah Congressman Mike Lee, the other chairman of the committee, has affirmed that "American consumers deserve the benefit of competition." With the upcoming committee investigation, he looks forward to delivering it.
According to the publication, the hearing will be titled "That's The Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment." It will be helped before a full Senate Judiciary Committee, including Illinois Congressman Dick Durbin and South Carolina Congresswoman Lindsey Graham.
The senate probe will take place at The Hill on Jan. 24, 2023, at 10:00 a.m.
Since the complaints, Live Nation has apologized for the setback, claiming that "tens of millions of uninvited users and billions of bots" are what caused the crash of the presale.
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