DC organization protests against Ticketmaster and Live Nation outside US Capitol

WASHINGTON (WJLA) — A D.C. area organization known as"Free Britney America" protested outside the U.S. Capitol Tuesday "in support of ending Ticketmaster-Live Nation’s monopoly over the live event and ticketing industry," according to the group.

The 10 a.m. rally was held at the same time as the Senate Judiciary Committee discussed the matter.

The rally comes after Ticketmaster received backlash from Taylor Swift's fans in November 2022 due to error-ladened sales for her Eras Tour. Days after the pre-sale fiasco, the Department of Justice announced an ongoing antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster.

Additionally, more than two dozen Swift fans filed a class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation.

The danger of Live Nation’s power in the entertainment industry extends far beyond making tickets inaccessible through exorbitant fees and website failures," the group said.

The US Senate Judiciary Committee said it scheduled the hearing to examine the lack of competition in the ticketing industry.

The hearing was titled, “That’s The Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment.”

The issues within America’s ticketing industry were made painfully obvious when Ticketmaster’s website failed hundreds of thousands of fans hoping to purchase tickets for Taylor Swift’s new tour, but these problems are not new. For too long, consumers have faced high fees, long waits, and website failures, and Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means the company faces inadequate pressure to innovate and improve,” US Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who is the chairwoman, said in a news release.

Following the ticket debacle, Klobuchar wrote an open letter to Ticketmaster President and CEO Michael Rapino.

Ticketmaster’s power in the primary ticket market insulates it from the competitive pressures that typically push companies to innovate and improve their services. That can result in the types of dramatic service failures we saw this week, where consumers are the ones that pay the price.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: WSTM's Emma Misiaszek contributed to this report.