Taylor Swift’s ticket sale for her upcoming 2023 ‘Eras’ tour turned into chaos, leaving many fans disappointed and even prompting the U.S. government to investigate. 

After her release of the album ‘Midnights’, Swift announced that she would be having a stadium tour in 2023 with headliners such as Phoebe Bridgers, Gracie Abrams, and Girl in Red. 

Two ticket pre-sales were held on the website Ticketmaster: the verified fans sale on November 15 and a Capital One card holder sale on November 16. The first sale required users to have a unique pre-sale code sent the night before to use at check out; however, the amount of users trying to buy tickets resulted in multiple website crashes.

The amount of difficulties caused Ticketmaster to postpone the Capital One sale, as it was originally planned to be November 15 as well. The company claimed that the website would still be capable of having the second pre-sale. Despite the postponement, the Capital One sale had technical difficulties and tickets sold out within three hours. Due to the immense demand at both pre-sales, the general sale of tickets was canceled. 

According to Ticketmaster’s website traffic, Swift would have to perform over 900 stadium shows in order for every user to receive a ticket. 

On November 18, Taylor Swift released a statement regarding what fans are calling “The Great War of Ticketmaster”. 

“There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward. 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,” said Swift. 

Many long-time fans of the singer are deeply disappointed that they were unable to get tickets. Even some fans that received the original personal pre-sale code did not receive tickets.

“My friends and I tried to get tickets with our presale code, but with all the glitches by the time we got to the front of the line everything was sold out. It’s just aggravating that we spent two days freaking out, just to not get tickets,” said Leila Margillo, a junior. 

While many saw this as simply an issue of pop-star obsessed teenagers, others used this situation to call upon the monopoly of Ticketmaster.

Local New York State Senator James Skoufis expressed anger with the company’s practices. On November 15, he tweeted, “I’ve spent the last two years fighting Ticketmaster in the New York State Senate. Few people have seen their monopoly up close and personal like I have. On behalf of everyone who loves @taylorswift13’s fantastic new album: Break. Ticketmaster. Up.”

On November 17, he mocked a tweet made by the company itself and said, “Due to our [Ticketmaster’s] monopoly, s—y platform, exorbitant fees, and thousands of tickets we are reserving for diamond club credit card holders, the average fan is getting screwed again.”

Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation have been accused of being a monopoly for quite some time due to its dynamic pricing, service fees, and ownership over 80 percent of America’s large venues. Dynamic pricing allows Ticketmaster to base the price of tickets on the demand of the ticket rather than its value.

In addition, there are service fees fans pay for every ticket that give revenue to themselves and the venue. These added fees have allowed them to sign exclusive contracts with venues which restricts them from releasing tickets publicly through another platform. The bottom line is that unless you buy a ticket from a reseller at an inflated price, you are required to go through Ticketmaster. 

It has recently been announced that this case has been brought to the U.S. Department of Justice and will be discussed by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights. This hearing has not yet been scheduled.