Months after its system was overwhelmed by demand for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, Ticketmaster issued an apology to Taylor Swift and her fans during a hearing in the US Senate.

Due to the issue, thousands of “Swifties” were unable to purchase seats.

On Tuesday, Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, president Joe Berchtold told lawmakers, “We need to do better and we will.”

He stated that “a terrible consumer experience” was the result of a bot attack.
Since its merger with Live Nation in 2010, Ticketmaster has come under fire from politicians and fans alike for allegedly having too much influence over the live music market and artificially inflating ticket prices through fees and service charges.

Ticketmaster is accountable for 70% of ticket sales in the United States, as stated by Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is in charge of the consumer rights committee in the US Senate.

In point of fact, there is no other option. Last year, she stated to MSNBC that it is a monopoly.

She added, ” Regarding the Swift tour Customers’ experiences with high fees, site disruptions, and cancellations demonstrate that Ticketmaster does not face any pressure to continuously innovate and improve because of its dominant market position.”
Swift stated that she had been assured that Ticketmaster could handle the demand and that it was “excruciating” to watch fans struggle to obtain tickets.

The company provided the first explanation of how software “bots” used to illegally obtain tickets had targeted its systems in written testimony prior to its Tuesday grilling by US senators.

Despite Ticketmaster’s use of its “verified fan” program, which requires customers to pre-register their interest in order for the company to determine whether they are genuine fans intending to see the show, the attacks occurred.

Mr. Berchtold wrote, “We knew bots would attack… and planned accordingly.”

“Terrible customer experience” “After that, we were hit with three times the amount of bot traffic that we had ever seen, and for the first time in 400 Verified Fan onsales, they went after our Verified Fan access code servers.”

“The attack necessitated us to slow down and even halt our sales, despite the fact that the bots were unable to penetrate our systems or acquire any tickets. We deeply regret the negative customer experience that resulted from this.

Mr. Berchtold also admitted that the business should have spread out the sales “over a longer period of time” to avoid overloading its systems and “a better job setting fan expectations for getting tickets.”

During the hearing, Penny Harrison was a member of a small group protesting Ticketmaster outside the Capitol building.

She recalls attempting to purchase Swift tickets for her three children for nine hours. She started out frustrated, then emotional, and then irate.

Ms. Harrison said, “I was pissed off,” and she added that she had tried all day to get tickets but had missed two doctor appointments.

Ms. Harrison stated, “I’m seeing tickets going on resale prices for $10,000 or $20,000 (£16,223) as I’m sitting in the queue looking.” In addition, if you were fortunate enough to add tickets to your cart, they were gone before you could pay for them.”

Mr. Berchtold stated that 2.2 million tickets were purchased, with less than 5% ending up on resale websites, where scalpers typically charge exorbitant prices.

He stated that Ticketmaster “does not set ticket prices” and that “the majority” of additional fees “go to the venue, not to Ticketmaster” in response to other criticisms.

Ms. Harrison believes that “they need to speak up, they need to get mad, and they need to demand a change” for anyone to ever attend a concert or sporting event.

She is one of more than 300 people who have filed a class-action lawsuit against Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster.

The lawsuit claims that the businesses forced fans to pay artificially high prices before, during, and after the sale.
The scandal surrounding Swift’s tour prompted the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Tuesday, which will investigate competition in the ticketing industry.

Senators will also hear from representatives of SeatGeek, concert promoter JAM Productions, and Clyde Lawrence, a vocal critic of Ticketmaster’s business practices, in addition to Live Nation.

With its testimony, Live Nation included a number of letters of support, one of which came from country star Garth Brooks, who urged US lawmakers to take a tougher stance against ticket touts.

“My question is, why don’t we just make scalping illegal as a nation?” “He wrote it. During an on-sale, the overwhelming number of bots is a major cause of program failure.

“And the customer, the last person to bear that burden, is always the one who pays for this atrocity.”

However, absent evidence of Ticketmaster’s anti-competitive practices, such as unfairly pressuring artists to use their services, it is unclear whether Tuesday’s hearing will result in any significant change.

The business has consistently denied a