This week, the Mexican singer Luis Miguel announced that the pre-sale and sale of tickets for his 2023 tour would not be carried out through Ticketmaster, the giant of live events, which handles the ticketing of the vast majority of concerts and musical works.
Curiosity has arisen about this decision by ‘El Sol’, but not questions, since the ticketing company with a presence in America and Europe has faced several scandals in recent times, due to its inability to handle a considerable influx of buyers.
The two most notorious cases have been the tours of Taylor Swift, in the United States, and Bad Bunny, through Latin America, specifically on his visit to Mexico.
Con Taylor, the platform crashed during pre-sale for its The Eras Tourleaving thousands without tickets, some of whom stayed at the last step, the payment, before losing the place they had won in a virtual queue of more than 6 hours.
Also, the company sold out the tickets in the pre-sale, so the general sale was cancelled. Taylor apologized to his fans, and without mentioning the company directly, noted that the company he trusted for ticketing had assured him that he “had the capacity” for the job.
Later, the managers of the monopoly would affirm that they expected around 1.5 million fans, and that in reality 14 million people tried to purchase tickets at the same time.
Taylor Swift has released a statement through her Instagram stories for fans about the current situation with Ticketmaster. pic.twitter.com/8iZdhHhqse
— Taylor Swift Paraguay 🕰 | Fan Club (@pytaylorswift) November 18, 2022
In the case of Bad Bunny, his concert at the Azteca Stadium, the largest in Mexico, It was held with only half of the attendeesdespite having sold all the tickets.
The event occurred after about 40% of those who bought a ticket could not enter, due to an error in the code readers and a problem with the cloning of tickets.
The event unleashed chaos at the entrance to the stadium, where a stampede broke out and several people tried to jump over the external walls of the stadium in order to enter.
While at first the event was accused of overselling, Ticketmaster released a statement stating that it was a cloning problem, since many tickets were duplicates and both the original and the clone were cancelled.
The fans who were let down by #TicketMasterthey asked to enter the Bad Bunny concert at the Azteca Stadium to the rhythm of the Mexican inn, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry anymore. #BadBunnyCDMX | #EstadioAzteca |#BadBunny pic.twitter.com/AGMk1xeYuD
— Alan Ramírez (@ramirez7alan) December 10, 2022
Users have denounced the few security measures that the company has to avoid problems such as cloning and resale, because while thousands are left without tickets, independent companies always offer “preferred” and general tickets on networks, with increased prices, and in total impunity.
They have also complained about virtual queues, where users can spend up to 4-6 hours trying to get tickets, without a clear idea of the sales criteria, and with the risk of the server crashing right on their turn.
Finally, there is the mismanagement of the tickets, because, although, in theory, the company should allocate only a portion to pre-sale, there has been more than one event where all the spaces are sold on the first day, without leave nothing for general sale.
#EnPortada Profeco asks Ticketmaster to know its anti-resale controls; company sues reseller pic.twitter.com/T8jgBxPzud
— The Universal (@El_Universal_Mx) September 1, 2022
This type of situation increases in massive events, such as concerts by major international artists and music festivals.
Legal consequences for Ticketmaster
For the problems that occurred during the sale of the The Eras Tour de Taylor Swift, the entertainment company faces a lawsuit in the United Stateswhich is still in process.
The company is facing an investigation for monopolistic practices, that even made it to the US Congresswhere it is requested to limit its dominance in the market.
This is because the company is practically the only one available for this service, not only because of its virtual means to provide it, but also because of the infrastructure it has.
And it is that most of the venues that could host this type of presentation in the US have direct agreements with the ticket office, which ties the hands of artists who want to perform, since the best venues are the ones that are under their control.
The lawsuit was brought by a Taylor fan lawyer, who was left without a ticket, and who has presented similar cases as evidence to demonstrate Ticketmaster’s limited ability to organize and sell all events.
Among those cited are crises, server crashes, and resale scandals on tours by artists such as Harry Styles, Ramstein, and the k-pop group, BTS.
I open a thread about everything that is going to change thanks to the Ticketmaster class action. pic.twitter.com/62oWIG75XC
— Obamna (@Sergiodar11) December 6, 2022
