Tennessee’s attorney general said he would look into whether the live-events site Ticketmaster violated consumers’ rights and antitrust regulations, after glitches on the platform during the sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour left some fans stranded in hours-long virtual queues.
Jonathan Skrmetti (R) said his office had received complaints from people who tried purchasing tickets for “Eras,” Swift’s first tour in over four years, and said they faced a chaotic process and a “severe lack of customer support” from Ticketmaster. It was not clear Thursday morning whether the attorney general has opened a formal investigation.
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“We are concerned about this very dominant market player, and we want to make sure that they’re treating consumers right and that people are receiving a fair opportunity to purchase the tickets that clearly matter a great deal to them,” Skrmetti said of Ticketmaster during a Wednesday news conference, according to a transcript provided by his office.
“We just need to take a closer look,” he added.
The chaos over sales of Swift tickets caused some politicians to raise questions about the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and the event company Live Nation, amid allegations from consumer rights groups that the company abused its dominant position in the market. Skrmetti, who said his office had “previously looked into antitrust allegations involving Ticketmaster and Live Nation,” stressed that neither company has been accused of misconduct.
