Ticketmaster is hosting a second round of presales Wednesday for Taylor Swift's upcoming "Eras Tour" after a "historically unprecedented demand" for tickets crashed the site Tuesday, Axios reported.
The ticketing service's presale tickets opened to fans with registered codes on Tuesday, Nov. 15, but soon people were raising various issues that blocked them from obtaining tickets. At one point Tuesday, Downdetector.com showed more than 5,000 outage reports for Ticketmaster as fans rushed to secure tickets.
It was not long before social media was flooded with complaints from frustrated fans, as well as politicians who used the opportunity to call out the company.
"Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it’s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in," wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in a tweet.
"What is going on with Ticketmaster is an example of why we need strong antitrust enforcement! Monopolies wreak havoc on consumers and our economy," added Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. "When there is no competition to incentivize better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences."
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., also weighed in on the matter on social media.
"@Ticketmaster's excessive wait times and fees are completely unacceptable, as seen with today's @taylorswift13 tickets, and are a symptom of a larger problem," he tweeted. "It’s no secret that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is an unchecked monopoly."
By way of an explanation, Ticketmaster issued a statement saying that there had been a "historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets for the TaylorSwiftTix Presale."
Swift's "Eras Tour," which comprises 52 dates, is her first since the 2018 "Reputation" stadium tour and is set to be her biggest tour to date, according to Variety. Opening acts for the U.S. leg of the tour are Paramore, Haim, Phoebe Bridgers, Beabadoobee, Girl in Red, Muna, Gayle, Gracie Abrams, and Owenn.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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