Ticketmaster faces antitrust scrutiny in Mexico following Unhealthy Bunny ticket gross sales fiasco

The top of Profeco, Mexico’s client safety watchdog, has promised to sue Ticketmaster following a ticketing snafu within the nation’s capital, stories . On the weekend of December ninth, Puerto Rican reggaeton star Unhealthy Bunny was scheduled to play two soldout reveals in Mexico Metropolis’s Estadio Azteca, the most important stadium in Latin America. The Friday night time date noticed hundreds of followers denied entry to the venue after they had been instructed by Estadio Azteca employees the tickets they purchased instantly from Ticketmaster had been faux.

Profeco accused the corporate of overselling tickets. In line with the company, greater than 1,600 ticket holders had been denied entry on the primary night time, and one other 110 on the next night. “Ticketmaster claimed they had been counterfeit, however they had been all issued by them,” Profeco head Ricardo Sheffield told local news outlets. Ticketmaster has agreed to refund all affected followers the total value of their ticket, plus a 20 p.c compensation payment. Profeco is getting ready to file a class-action lawsuit towards the corporate. Ticketmaster Mexico is also fined as much as 10 p.c of its whole gross sales in 2021. “As we’re a fiscal authority, in the event that they don’t need to pay of their very own will, we’ll seize their accounts then, and they’ll pay as a result of they must,” Sheffield stated.

In a Ticketmaster posted to Twitter this week, the corporate denied the declare it oversold tickets. It blamed the occasion on demand for Unhealthy Bunny tickets – saying greater than 4.5 million individuals tried to buy simply 120,000 stubs – and scalpers who bought faux tickets. “On Friday, an unprecedented variety of false tickets, not purchased by way of our official channels, had been offered on the gates,” the corporate stated, based on an . “The state of affairs, along with confusion amongst entry management personnel, brought about short-term interruptions within the ticket studying system, which sadly momentarily impeded recognition of reputable tickets.”

In November, Democratic lawmakers, together with Home Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, started calling for the break up of Ticketmaster after the corporate botched gross sales of Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets. “Day by day reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, its merger with LiveNation ought to by no means have been accepted, they usually have to be reigned in,” final month. The US Division of Justice an antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster dad or mum firm LiveNation earlier than the Swift fiasco. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competitors Coverage, Antitrust and Shoppers it might maintain a listening to on the corporate’s current failures.