Joe Biden has referred to as for brand new laws to be launched to restrict “extreme” charges on live performance tickets.

President Biden’s assertion comes within the wake of a listening to within the US Congress regarding points within the the ticketing business, which was held in response to the controversy round Ticketmaster’s dealing with of the Taylor Swift ‘Eras’ tour presale late final 12 months.

Hundreds of followers making an attempt to get tickets within the presale reported prolonged wait instances, web site outages, and hyper-inflated costs on resale websites. The ticketing firm later admitted it buckled beneath the “traditionally unprecedented demand” they confronted from Swift’s followers earlier than cancelling the final sale.

Now, eight days after the listening to started, Biden instantly addressed one other outstanding subject within the ticketing world – “junk charges” which might be added on to ticket costs. At a Competitors Committee assembly, Biden referred to as for Congress “to decrease the large service charges that corporations like Ticketmaster slap onto tickets for concert events or sporting occasions that may simply add lots of of dollars to a household’s evening out.” [via CompleteMusicUpdate]

In an additional assertion yesterday, the Biden administration mentioned: “Many on-line ticket sellers impose huge service charges at check-out that aren’t disclosed when shoppers are selecting their tickets.

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“In a evaluation of 31 completely different sporting occasions throughout 5 ticket sellers’ web sites”, it continued, “service prices averaged greater than 20% of the ticket’s face worth, and complete charges – like processing charges, supply charges, and facility charges – reached as much as greater than half the price of the ticket itself. A household of 4 attending a present might find yourself paying excess of $100 in charges above and past the price of the tickets.”

It continued: “Usually, if People wish to attend a specific live performance or sporting occasion, they solely have one on-line possibility for making the preliminary ticket buy.

“That signifies that even when shoppers knew they may must pay a big payment on prime of the ticket price, they might don’t have any solution to keep away from it in the event that they wished to attend a specific present. One firm has unique partnerships with a reported 80 of the highest 100 arenas in the USA, permitting it to cost charges to attend occasions at these main venues with out concern of competitors”.

Biden can also be seeking to crack down on hidden charges in different industries, comparable to hidden resort charges at inns, overdraft charges, bank card late charges, and early termination charges charged by web and cellphone suppliers.



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