Colorado lawmaker joins bipartisan group investigating Ticketmaster over 'potential unfair or deceptive practices' in Taylor Swift ticket sales
A bipartisan group of six members of Congress is now investigating Ticketmaster over the chaos related to ticket sales for Taylor Swift.
The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce penned a formal letter to Michael Rapino, president and CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster's parent company, Tuesday.
In it, the group of lawmakers raises concerns about what it calls a lack of consumer protections built into its ticket-buying website and requested a meeting with company executives.
The six signatories to the letter include U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Morgan Griffith (R-VA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL).
"The recent chaos over Taylor Swift ticket sales is the latest in a series of instances involving potentially unfair & deceptive practices by the ticketing industry, DeGette, whose district includes Denver, Englewood and other metro-area communities, wrote on Twitter Tuesday. "Today, my colleagues & I are demanding answers on Ticketmaster's practices and what it's doing to protect consumers."
Read the full two-page letter here:
"The Energy and Commerce Committee has previously raised concerns about business practices in the live ticketing industry," the lawmakers wrote. "The recent pre-sale ticketing process for Taylor Swift's upcoming Eras tour - in which millions of fans endured delays, lockouts, and competition with aggressive scammers, scalpers, and bots - raises concerns over the potential unfair and deceptive practices that face consumers and eventgoers."
Ticketmaster has not made any public statements about the debacle since Nov. 19, a few days after tickets went on sale. In that Nov. 19 statement, it apologized to fans, saying, "first, we want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans - especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets."
The company went onto say that demand for tickets was so high, it caused issues with the website, but also broke records.
A company representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
