Can Congress fix Ticketmaster? New legislation, investigation take aim

It’s been a little over a year since the “Eras Tour” Ticketmaster fiasco, and the war on bots and hidden ticket fees is bringing senators on both sides of the aisle together to push for change. Even Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the legislator that Taylor Swift campaigned against and referenced in her “Miss Americana” Netflix documentary, backs new legislation introduced to increase transparency and fight overpriced tickets.

On Dec. 7, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced the Fans First Act, aimed at addressing flaws in the current live event ticketing systems.

"The current ticketing system is riddled with problems and doesn’t serve the needs of fans, teams, artists or venues," Cornyn said. "This legislation would rebuild trust in the ticketing system by cracking down on bots and others who take advantage of consumers."   

The bipartisan legislation included support from Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

“Fans have become increasingly frustrated with how difficult it has been to obtain affordable tickets to see their favorite artists perform,” Blackburn said. “Bots are snatching up tickets and selling them for exorbitant prices on secondary markets, while some ticketing companies are selling speculative event tickets that don’t even exist. This bipartisan legislation builds upon my work to safeguard artists and their fans in the online ticket marketplace.”

According to a news release, the legislation would impact three areas: ticket sales transparency, consumer protection and stopping bad actors. All live event ticket sellers and resellers would need to disclose all fees when a fan initially selects a ticket for purchase, identify whether the seller is the original seller, provide proof of purchase within 24 hours of the purchase and issue a refund for the full ticket cost if the event is canceled.

The legislation gives the Federal Trade Commission and state attorney generals oversight of ticket fees and sales and allows them to impose civil penalties on illegal ticket sales.

Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, agrees reform is needed. The company is one of a few dozen that stand behind FAIR (Fans & Artists Insisting on Reforms) Ticketing Reforms. The proposal has five parts: artists should decide resale rules, make it illegal to sell speculative tickets (when scalpers sell fake tickets or trick fans into spending more money), expand and enforce the 2016 BOTS Act, crack down on resale sites serving as safe havens for bot-powered scalping and mandate all-in pricing across the nation (avoid surprises at check out).

When the Fans First Act will receive a vote is up to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as he controls the floor schedule. If it passes the Senate, it would move to the House and, if the same bill is passed in both chambers of Congress, it heads to the desk of President Joe Biden to become law.

From the Eras Tour ticket fiasco to today

On Nov. 15, 2022, Swifties flocked to Ticketmaster with presale codes and waited hours, screaming and crying for tickets to her Eras Tour concert. Fans hyperbolically compared the fiasco to the "Hunger Games" of our times: May the odds be ever in your favor.

Three days later, on Nov. 18, Swift posted an Instagram story message about her disappointment with Ticketmaster.

"I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could," she wrote. "It's truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them felt like they had to go through several bear attacks to get them."

The same day, Ticketmaster issued an apology.

"First, we want to apologize to Taylor," the company said, "and all of her fans — especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets."

The Live Nation company explained their verified fan process and noted that they gave out 1.5 million presale codes, but the site was overwhelmed with fans who didn't have codes and bots. The company had 170,000 remaining tickets to the Eras Tour that were made available in that December to fans who logged on to get tickets and failed.

The Justice Department opened an investigation. Two months later on Jan. 24, the president and CFO of Live Nation, Joe Berchtold, was subjected to a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Blackburn grilled Berchtold, asking if the company did enough to identify and stop bots.

"You told me yesterday that you have a hard time differentiating between a bot attack and a consumer," the senator said. "But the local power company down here [in Nashville] that is not the billion-dollar company you are can tell when they have a bad actor in their system. They figured out how to define a bot in their system, but you can’t?”

Berchtold said that these “bots are not trying to generally break into our system, they are bots that are trying to impersonate people to get tickets.”

Biden praised Ticketmaster, Seat Geek and other vendors in June for changes the companies made to adopt "all-in" upfront pricing models.

"These are just the latest private sector leaders who are responding to my call for action," the president said at a roundtable White House meeting with executives. "This is a win for consumers, in my view, and proof that our crackdown on junk fees has real momentum."

Senate subcommittee chair subpoenas Live Nation in November

But nine other senators who make up the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations still have questions of what happened with Ticketmaster and are overseeing an investigation into parent company Live Nation.

In November, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the chair of the subcommittee, issued a subpoena requesting withheld documents.

"This subpoena demands that the company promptly comply with our request for documents essential to understand its business practices,” Blumenthal said. “American consumers deserve fair ticket prices, without hidden fees or predatory charges.”

Live Nation fired back saying they have produced nearly 10,000 pages of documents over the past year including more than 2,000 emails and commercial agreements. The impasse, according to Live Nation, is over confidential documents about artists.

“Some of the information requested from Live Nation is highly sensitive client information about artists, venues and others with whom we deal,” said Dan Wall, the executive vice president for corporate and regulatory affairs for Live Nation, in a blog post. “It addresses plainly confidential subjects such as how much money artists make from their tours, which in any other government investigation would be produced subject to binding confidentiality protections to prevent its misuse.”

Wall said Live Nation would "produce such information with normal confidentiality protections ... but not without them."

So what could the subpoena lead to? According to Blumenthal's office, Ticketmaster has a legal obligation to comply with a congressional subpoena. If a company fails to comply, it could be found in contempt, and a court could force it to produce the documents being withheld.

“My inquiry seeks to protect consumers," Blumenthal said, "uncovering how Live Nation’s junk fees, profiteering and price gouging can be halted. Consumers, venues, artists — everyone in this industry — should have a fair chance at access and success.”

As for when consumers can expect a thorough and accurate report, it will take time. Generally, the subcommittee's investigations take anywhere from several months to two years, and in some cases longer.

Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.