|
Ticketmaster canceled planned ticket sales to
the general public for Swift's 2023 U.S. concert tour, her first
in five years, earlier this month as 3.5 billion ticket requests
from fans, bots and scalpers overwhelmed the website.
Senators Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn, the top
Democrat and Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee's data
security panel, both of whom worked on a 2016 law banning ticket
scalpers from using software to buy tickets, pressed the agency
on what, if anything, it had done to enforce the law.
"Ticketmaster/LiveNation pointed to online bots as a reason why
fans could not get Taylor Swift concert tickets, leading the
ticket seller to shut down sales to the general public," the
senators wrote in a letter to the FTC, citing other instances of
consumers having problems buying tickets online.
"While bots may not be the only reason for these problems, which
Congress is evaluating, fighting bots is an important step in
reducing consumer costs in the online ticketing industry," the
senators wrote.
Swift, winner of the artist of the year at the recent American
Music Awards, said it had been "excruciating" to watch fans
struggle to secure tickets for her Eras tour after she had been
assured that Ticketmaster could handle the large demand.
A spokesman for the FTC confirmed that it had received the
letter, but had no comment.
In the letter, the lawmakers asked why the agency had not
brought more than one enforcement action under the law and asked
if there were other enforcement actions in the pipeline.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Alexander Smith)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.]
|
|
