NEW YORK – The fight between Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour is far from done, with the newest fiasco hurting fans in France.
Sales for six of Swift’s forthcoming Paris and Lyon performances were abruptly canceled on Tuesday after some fans reported problems accessing Ticketmaster’s website. The cause was not immediately evident, although the ticket seller blamed a problem with a third-party provider in messages on Ticketmaster’s French Twitter several hours after the pause began.
The Associated Press was forwarded to the Twitter statement by Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster stated in the posts that tickets to the France shows were still available and that the company was “working to resolve this matter as soon as possible.”
According to the firm, any codes not utilized for ticket purchases on Tuesday will remain valid, and impacted fans “will be notified directly of the new onsale date and time.” The new times have yet to be determined.
Tuesday’s disaster followed the dramatic collapse observed last November during Ticketmaster’s sale of “Eras” tour tickets in the United States — when Ticketmaster’s site broke during a presale event for Swift’s stadium tour and thousands of customers lost tickets after waiting in an online queue for hours.
At the time, the firm claimed that its site was overloaded by fans and bots posing as customers to scoop up tickets and sell them on secondary sites. Later, the business apologized “to Taylor and all of her fans — especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets.”
The fight between Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour is far from done, with the newest fiasco hurting fans in France.
Swift conveyed fan frustration in November, writing on Instagram that it was “excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”
Several MPs have accused the company of exploiting its position as the main ticket vendor for customers. Both federal and state officials launched investigations into the shambles.
Ticketmaster, amalgamated with Live Nation in 2010, is the world’s largest ticket vendor, processing 500 million tickets in over 30 countries yearly. According to data from a federal lawsuit brought by consumers last year, Ticketmaster sells over 70% of tickets for major concert venues in the United States.
After Tuesday’s postponement of France ticket sales, anger towards the ticket seller resurfaced.
“Ticketmaster is a poorly run company, and its bad practises stem in part from its position as a monopolist in the space of concert ticket distribution,” said Shubha Ghosh, an antitrust law professor at Syracuse University.
Swift is closing up her 52-city U.S. tour, culminating with gigs in Los Angeles in early August. Her international tour kicks out on August 24 in Mexico City. She’ll perform four concerts in Paris in May 2024 and two in Lyon the following June.
SOURCE – (AP)
