Ticketmaster Mexico will face substantial fines over issuing tickets concertgoers were unable to use during Bad Bunny’s final tour dates in Mexico City for his “World’s Hottest Tour.” Gizmodo reports that 1,700 fans were unable to catch Bad Bunny’s tour over the weekend at Estadio Azteca. The Federal Attorney’s Office for Consumers (Profeco) is fighting on behalf of those customers and has charged Ticketmaster Mexico with picking up 100% of the costs of the tickets, plus an additional 20%. An additional fine is coming.
While Ticketmaster Mexico categorized the incident as “the result of the presentation of an unprecedented number of counterfeit tickets,” some officials believe Ticketmaster was simply overselling the venue and lining its own pockets. Estadio Azteca, the largest stadium in Mexico and all of Latin America, can fit some 80,000 fans with a maximum capacity of 87,523. In an interview, Profeco head Ricardo Sheffield claimed that Ticketmaster Mexico issued the “counterfeit” tickets themselves.
“It’s a real elegant way to oversell. That’s what they did—they oversold,” Sheffield said on Sunday in an interview with Radio Fórmula. He added that the fine Ticketmaster Mexico faces could be as much as 10% of the company’s profits last year in Mexico, constituting a fine of $1 million. Sheffield said the final amount has yet to be determined.
This situation is the latest woe for Ticketmaster, which faced so many issues from fans for its “dynamic pricing” of Taylor Swift tickets that multiple attorneys general promised to address the issue. On Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General's Office issued a statement noting that “a new round of ticket opportunities will be coming to PA consumers who received a pre-sale code this month.”
Penalties after the fact and temporary fixes don’t address a larger issue my colleague Cara Zelaya touched on in her piece about Ticketmaster screwing over Taylor Swift fans:
Ticketmaster has a long history of bad behavior, and its merger with LiveNation in 2010 hasn’t exactly helped matters. Add Swifties and Bad Bunny’s passionate fans around the globe, and maybe something will change so that buying a ticket to the World’s Hottest Tour—or Eras Tour—isn’t a gamble in which the only sound bet is that Ticketmaster will reap the financial rewards.
Do you have a Ticketmaster story? Sound off in the comments.
While Ticketmaster Mexico categorized the incident as “the result of the presentation of an unprecedented number of counterfeit tickets,” some officials believe Ticketmaster was simply overselling the venue and lining its own pockets. Estadio Azteca, the largest stadium in Mexico and all of Latin America, can fit some 80,000 fans with a maximum capacity of 87,523. In an interview, Profeco head Ricardo Sheffield claimed that Ticketmaster Mexico issued the “counterfeit” tickets themselves.
“It’s a real elegant way to oversell. That’s what they did—they oversold,” Sheffield said on Sunday in an interview with Radio Fórmula. He added that the fine Ticketmaster Mexico faces could be as much as 10% of the company’s profits last year in Mexico, constituting a fine of $1 million. Sheffield said the final amount has yet to be determined.
This situation is the latest woe for Ticketmaster, which faced so many issues from fans for its “dynamic pricing” of Taylor Swift tickets that multiple attorneys general promised to address the issue. On Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General's Office issued a statement noting that “a new round of ticket opportunities will be coming to PA consumers who received a pre-sale code this month.”
Penalties after the fact and temporary fixes don’t address a larger issue my colleague Cara Zelaya touched on in her piece about Ticketmaster screwing over Taylor Swift fans:
Ticketmaster has a long history of bad behavior, and its merger with LiveNation in 2010 hasn’t exactly helped matters. Add Swifties and Bad Bunny’s passionate fans around the globe, and maybe something will change so that buying a ticket to the World’s Hottest Tour—or Eras Tour—isn’t a gamble in which the only sound bet is that Ticketmaster will reap the financial rewards.
Do you have a Ticketmaster story? Sound off in the comments.