Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey has attacked Ticketmaster over a contentious pricing policy for Bruce Springsteen tickets, and he has asked for 3 questions to be answered by the end of September.
Pascrell claims he has received a deluge of complaints from people who were confronted with having to spend more than $4,500 to attend forthcoming performances, with some believing there would be no less expensive choices. Since then, “dynamic pricing” has been justified by Ticketmaster and Springsteen’s management.
The congressman says he is working on behalf of music lovers and “should have the ability to enjoy live entertainment without … practices that rip off consumers” by backing measures to overhaul the ticketing industry,
Pascrell argues in a letter to Michael Rapino, the head of Ticketmaster: “your company claims that this system allows artists and event organizers to fairly determine the ‘true market value’ of tickets,” nonetheless, the Official Platinum Seats program actually “has resulted in fans paying exorbitant prices. Additionally, the fine print of your program allows additional amounts or fees to ‘be added on top of the already elevated prices.’”
Read the entire memo in the tweet below:
Today I’ve demanded answers from Ticketmaster on the monopoly’s role in the Springsteen tour fiasco where fans were charged upwards of $5000 for seats. pic.twitter.com/K8WGtmH1iX
— Bill Pascrell, Jr. 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@BillPascrell) August 31, 2022
Many people responded to Pascrell, including a British Bruce Springsteen enthusiast. who provided information on ticket prices between 1981 and 2016? He said that all 10 prior performances he had seen cost less than his 11th ticket. Others who attempted to purchase tickets for performances by other performers reported seeing similar premium pricing techniques.