In response, several U.S. Congress members voiced to revert the 2010 merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation,[note 1] which they dubbed a monopoly lacking competitive pressure, leading to substandard service and extortionate prices.

[10] The deal was cleared by the U.S. Justice Department in January 2010 under the condition that the company sell Paciolan to Comcast Spectacor or another firm, and license its software to Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), its biggest competitor.

[note 2] Its U.S. leg, which initially consisted of 27 dates across 20 cities, started on March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona, and concluded on August 9, 2023, in Inglewood, California, with tickets sold via Ticketmaster.

[2] In less than an hour of availability, the ticketing platform's servers were "unable to answer", with users experiencing turbulence—"either completely logged out or in a queue 2,000-plus people strong that appeared frozen" as per Rolling Stone.

[1] However, Fortune and Bloomberg News attributed the criticism to Ticketmaster's "oft-confusing multistep buying process plagued with additional fees", as well as "long waits, technical problems, and poor customer service".

However, the website was overwhelmed by the "staggering" number of fans as well as bots without presale codes, resulting in "3.5 billion total system requests—[four times the site's] previous peak."

"[43] Later that same day, Ticketmaster issued an apology "to Taylor and all of her fans" via their Twitter account,[44] but remarked that "less than 5% of the tickets for the tour have been sold or posted for resale on the secondary market" such as StubHub.

[50] Billboard reported that Ticketmaster opted to sell the remaining 170,000 unsold seats over four weeks through Ticketstoday, a ticketing platform that was originally built for Dave Matthews Band's fanclub in the 2000s but was later sold to Live Nation, to "significantly reduce fan wait times" and avoid high website traffic.

Vigilante Legal also began gathering evidence from fans who experienced "discriminatory and questionable service" from Ticketmaster, including a potential violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

(Swifties Working to Increase Fairness from Ticketmaster) on November 17, with aims to "bring together Gen Z organizers to advocate for legislation expanding federal authority to oversee and prevent future monopolies around entertainment.

[15] Bill Pascrell, the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 9th congressional district, criticized the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, and stated that he attempted to purchase tickets but was waitlisted.

He also underscored that he had previously petitioned in 2021 the United States Attorney General, Merrick Garland, in support of "strong antitrust enforcement by the [Joe] Biden Administration", along with House members Frank Pallone, Jerry Nadler, Jan Schakowsky, and David Cicilline in a joint letter.

[64] On November 19, Representative Cicilline, who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, urged the Department of Justice to investigate and break up the companies.

"[69] On December 6, the FTC chair, Lina Khan, told on The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Summit that companies like Ticketmaster can become "too big to care", and clarified that it was the Justice Department that approved the 2010 merger.

Biden and National Economic Council director Lael Brainaird made a press statement at the White House on June 15, 2023, highlighting the push to prohibit such deceptive, surprise fees federally, applying to resorts and rentals as well.

"[71][72] In November 2023, the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations issued a subpoena to Ticketmaster and Live Nation "for documents related to the company's ticket pricing, fees, and resale practices" following a months-long inquiry.

According to Carolyn Sloane, assistant professor of economics of the University of California, Riverside, the fiasco spurred mass political action because Swift "has scaled her talent through demographic technology".

[88] In December 2023, the U.S. Senate introduced the Fans First Act, authored by Klobuchar, Blackburn, John Cornyn, Ben Ray Luján, Roger Wicker and Peter Welch, to address the hidden fees, scalping bots, and a lack of clarity on whether a ticket is being sold by the primary seller or a third-party.

"[92][89] In the Washington State Legislature, Representative Kristine Reeves debuted in January 2023 the TSWIFT Consumer Protection Act, which mandates the prohibition of bots or software to buy tickets and restrictions on dynamic pricing.

[95][96] The California State Assembly passed Bill 8, sponsored by Laura Friedman, Jacqui Irwin and Scott Wilk, that requires ticket sellers to disclose the total prices upfront.

[97] In a statement to The Washington Post, Ticketmaster refused to comment on any alleged negotiations with lawmakers regarding the bills, but noted it had to "ramp up our engagement with policymakers because they are being inundated with misinformation peddled by scalpers.

"[89] A group of fans, consisting of 26 plaintiffs across the U.S., filed a lawsuit on December 2, 2022, in the Los Angeles County Superior Court,[98] against Ticketmaster and Live Nation for "intentional deception", "fraud, price fixing and antitrust violations".

It demanded a civil penalty of $2500 for every violation of the California Unfair Competition Law,[99][21] alongside plaintiffs seeking the costs of legal fees, and any additional relief the court deems fit.

"[21] The lawsuit also alleged that Ticketmaster "carved out small territories" for competitors like SeatGeek to conceal "the level of monopolistic power and control" the company has,[21] intentionally permitted scalpers and bots to access the presale, and "gave more codes than it had tickets.

"[118] On January 23, The Los Angeles Times published an article titled "How Ticketmaster became the most hated name in music", in which it claimed that a "high-ranking concert executive", speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that "Ticketmaster erred in placing all the Eras tickets on sale at once and allowing fans to pick their own seats, which led to bottlenecked traffic" and that "the Verified Fan database was rife with resellers with fake email addresses.

Ricardo Sheffield, the head of Mexico's consumer protection agency, stated in a Radio Fórmula interview that Ticketmaster would be forced to pay a fine of up to 10 percent of its 2021 earnings in addition to "compensation of no less than 20% of the price paid.

[129] However, Ticketmaster released a statement claiming the demand for the Renaissance World Tour is "expected to be high" and pledged to implement a "multistep verification process" to ensure tickets are being sold to the concertgoers rather than scalpers.

[131] In March 2023, fans of Canadian music artist Drake also filed a class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster in the Superior Court of Quebec, alleging intentional deception and fraud.

Angelo Gopee, head of Live Nation France, stated, "the demand is such that many have found themselves in a virtual queue just to subscribe to the mailing list which, potentially, will open access to the ticket office.

[144] Forbes reported widespread scalping of the tour's UK tickets, with immediate re-listing on sites like StubHub and Viagogo for extortionate prices, in addition to website crashes.