Swifties start wave of Ticketmaster monopoly scrutiny

After waiting for hours only to fail to get tickets in a Nov 15 online portal for select fans, some of Swift’s fans took to social media to vent en masse about Ticketmaster’s oft-criticised market power and chokehold in live entertainment ticketing. — AFP

Swifties, as Taylor Swift fans are known, received a crash course in anti-monopoly advocacy this week when the Ticketmaster portal for the singer’s concert tickets crashed and caused hours-long delays.

After waiting for hours only to fail to get tickets in a Nov 15 online portal for select fans, some of them took to social media to vent en masse about the Beverly Hills-based company’s oft-criticised market power and chokehold in live entertainment ticketing. Waves of their frustration intermixed with armchair antitrust analysis. Censure and ridicule of the company grew louder when Ticketmaster decided to cancel public ticket sales planned for Nov 18.