Tennesee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced he will investigate Ticketmaster following widespread issues reported by customers during a presale ticket event for an upcoming Taylor Swift tour.
“Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is concerned about consumer complaints related to @Ticketmaster. He and his Consumer Protection team will use every available tool to ensure that no consumer protection laws were violated,” his office tweeted Wednesday.
In a press conference, according to WATE, Skrmetti echoed that sentiment to reporters, although there were no allegations to make at the time.
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Taylor Swift attends an event at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, 2022.
(Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
“We received a number of complaints and there’s been significant press coverage that the ticket sale process did not go smoothly,” the attorney general noted.
“It’s my job to ensure that the consumer protection laws and antitrust laws in Tennessee are being honored,” he said of the antitrust investigation.
Millions hit the website to purchase tickets for the TaylorSwiftTix Presale, and while some who battled on the computer scored tickets for the star’s upcoming “The Eras Tour,” many were left empty-handed after the hours-long debacle, including long queues and error messages.
In a Tuesday tweet, Ticketmaster said the demand was “historically unprecedented.”
Natasha Mitchner, shown attending a Taylor Swift concert in Columbus, Ohio, with her daughters on July 7, 2018, scored tickets to a Swift concert after several hours in the Ticketmaster queue.
(Natasha Mitchner via AP)
Fans who had a special code after registering had exclusive access to buy tickets on Wednesday.
“Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly,” New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
Like Ocasio-Cortez, Skrmetti noted how large Live Nation Entertainment’s – which was formed after the 2010 merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation – presence is in the live music ticket space.
Taylor Swift accepts an award onstage during the MTV Europe Music Awards at PSD Bank Dome on Nov. 13, 2022, in Duesseldorf, Germany.
(Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
“Anytime you have that kind of concentration of market share, there’s the risk that the lack of competition will not just drive up prices for consumers,” he said, “it will also reduce the quality of the product.”
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Swift’s 52-date tour kicks off in March and is her first since 2018.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.