Ticketmaster Agrees to Lower Excessive Fees Following Criticism from Artists

After facing pressure and criticism from artists and fans due to the so-called “excessive” ticket fees, Ticketmaster has offered a partial refund to certain gig goers.

The Cure’s frontman, Robert Smith, protested the high Ticketmaster fees last week on social media, leading to a small refund for those in North America who had purchased tickets for the band’s live tour.

Smith vented to their followers on Twitter, expressing their anger towards Ticketmaster’s fees for their upcoming Shows Of A Lost World Tour. They stated they had no control over the amount, which they felt was “sickening”.

Using Verified Fan scalping is regularly reduced by 80%, with typically fewer than 5% of tickets on the secondary market after a Verified Fan campaign. Listed below are a few of the artists who have effectively used VF to limit resale.”

— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 15, 2023

On social media, some supporters proclaimed that the fees they had to pay were more than the cost of a single admission, with one individual affirming that they had to give $90 in fees for $80 tickets.

Smith, on Twitter, voiced their disagreement with the “dynamic pricing”, “price surging”, and “platinum ticket” policies. They made it clear that the band were in charge of the ticket pricing for their upcoming tour and urged their fans to watch out for ticket scalpers.

Smith declared that they had been told that Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan system would effectively curtail resale and price inflation, which “would diminish scalping by 80%”.

Robert Smith has reported that scalping is generally decreased by 80% with the use of Verified Fan, and less than 5% of tickets are typically available on the secondary market following a Verified Fan campaign.

According to Smith, the band was certain that Ticketmaster’s ‘Verified Fan Page’ and ‘Face Value Ticket Exchange’ ideas could aid in combating scalpers. He also mentioned that they viewed it as providing “fair pricing” for followers who could miss out on tickets because of those touters.

He expressed his disgust with Ticketmaster fees situation and inquired why they are necessary.

1 OF 2: AFTER FURTHER CONVERSATION, TICKETMASTER HAVE AGREED WITH US THAT MANY OF THE FEES BEING CHARGED ARE UNDULY HIGH, AND AS A GESTURE OF GOODWILL HAVE OFFERED A $10 PER TICKET REFUND TO ALL VERIFIED FAN ACCOUNTS FOR LOWEST TICKET PRICE ('LTP’) TRANSACTIONS…

— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 16, 2023

Not long after tweeting, Smith disclosed that the band and Ticketmaster were in discussion in which the latter accepted that “a considerable amount of the fees being demanded were too excessive” and proposed to give a partial refund of between $5 and $10 to all Verified Fan accounts as a “token of goodwill”.

Smith elucidated that those who already purchased a ticket will receive an automatic reimbursement and that tickets on sale tomorrow will be subject to lower charges.

On Saturday, the 18th of March, the main vocalist of the band The Cure reported that most of their North American tour was sold out, with 500 tickets still available to the public.

More Perfect Union started a petition in November, asking the Department of Justice to look into Ticketmaster after technical issues made it so that Taylor Swift fans had to wait up to eight hours for tickets – some of which went for $22,000 on resale.