Ticketmaster warned by Senate ahead of Beyoncé ticket sale
Washington, DC - After the announcement of Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour, the US Senate has issued a warning to Ticketmaster ahead of the ticket sale.
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee quote tweeted a post from CNN about Beyoncé fans bracing for another fiasco like the one surrounding Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour.
"We're watching, @Ticketmaster," the tweet said.
Anxiety is already running high among fans looking to score tickets to the highly-anticipated concert series after the disaster that ensued during the presale for Swift's tour last November.
The sale for the Anti-Hero singer's 2023 shows left Swifties stuck in hours-long queues, and fans lucky enough to reach the checkout were met with unreasonably high service fees and ticket prices well above the starting value.
Ticketmaster's Taylor Swift fiasco still fresh in the memory
The outrage at the ticket giant's mishandling of the sale sparked a Senate hearing held on January 24.
Senators grilled Joe Berchtold, CFO of Live Nation, about Ticketmaster's handling of The Eras Tour sale and their general practices as a company.
Berchtold apologized for the "terrible consumer experience" fans had during Swift's presale, but he continued to deflect responsibility to bots, despite the Verified Fan system supposedly put in place to prevent such intrusions.
The senators' frustrations with Ticketmaster were made clear at the hearing, and they're doubling down on their scrutiny of the company ahead of its Verified Fan presale for the North American shows of Beyoncé's tour.
The Verified Fan presales for Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour begin on February 6 with a sale exclusively for members of the BeyHive.
Cover photo: Collage: Robyn Beck / AFP & Drew Angerer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP