Ticketmaster gets rich from bad fame

From the Corona Capital we learned of people who had not been able to enter because their tickets were duplicated. At the Harry Styles concert there was a very famous case of a little boy who was beaten by Ocesa security for claiming that his ticket was authentic ”.

Adriana Gochez, journalist.

Undoubtedly the topic of conversation over the weekend was the chaos generated last Friday in the access to the Azteca Stadium for the first of two dates of the Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, one of the most listened to artists in the world in 2022.

Over the past few months, criticism of Ticketmaster, the largest ticketing system for massive events and practically the only one until a few years ago, has been on the rise. At least since the reactivation of massive events, complaints on social networks have been just as massive due to the inaccessibility of their ticketing system for high-demand events such as the Corona Capital festival, or concerts by Harry Styles, Daddy Yankee and, of course, , Bad Bunny.

Through the networks, on Friday afternoon the wave of complaints from Bunny concert attendees who could not go to the property began to rise, with the explanation that their ticket had already accessed the event, as the only response.

The journalist Adriana Góchez, present on Friday and with experience in events organized by Ocesa and Ticketmaster, shares her impressions with this newspaper.

“Around five in the afternoon everything was quiet (the stadium opened its doors at 4:00 p.m.). There were too many people, but the flow was normal. It was around six o’clock that the cases of supposedly cloned tickets began to increase and then the security personnel also reported failures in the access system. At that time, in front of the main gate there were about 80 people who had not been let in and were shouting that they were not going to move because they bought their tickets legitimately. It was there that the logistics closed the accesses, but the people kept coming. Around seven o’clock, everyone wanted to enter and no one gave reasons for the closure.

Immediately afterwards, the journalist recounts, people began to gather at the access gates, among the already hundreds of people who were denied access and those who arrived at the concert whose start was scheduled for 10 at night. The case became huge among those who sought to enter through other routes and those who did not find a solution in those other routes either.

The concert began at 10 p.m. and the court area was not much more than 50% full. Many people were left without entering the building.

But Bad Bunny is not an isolated case, Góchez confirms. “From the Corona Capital we heard about people who had not been able to enter because their tickets were duplicated. At the Harry Styles concert there was a very famous case of a little boy who was beaten by Ocesa security for claiming that his ticket was authentic ”.

The Prophecy takes cards

The complaints poured into social networks are endless. “Fraud, I bought it at Ticketmaster and already in line the girl at the entrance with an arrogant and despotic attitude tells me that my ticket is cloned, she snatches it from me and viciously tears it up. This is a fraud, there were thousands of us leaving, ”Juan shared on social networks, accompanying a video as a backup.

“And once again in everyone’s face, the guy in the phosphorescent shirt receiving more than 12 general tickets. He didn’t have to line up and he received the tickets quickly. This is in the Parque Tezontle Mixup”, spread another user showing images.

Meanwhile, the Federal Consumer Prosecutor’s Office (Profeco) reported that in response to its request Ticketmaster declared: “the inconveniences on Friday in accessing the property were the result of the presentation of a considerable number of false tickets, as well as the intermittent operation of their system, which resulted in viewers with legitimate tickets being denied entry.”

Therefore, the system promised to reimburse the full cost of the ticket to consumers who have purchased legitimate tickets and who have not been able to access the concert. Likewise, Profeco reported, Ticketmaster must grant compensation of no less than 20% of the cost of each ticket for people who did not manage to enter.

The context also gives reasons

In 2016, the Federal Economic Competition Commission began an investigation for possible “monopolistic practices” in the entertainment industry against Grupo CIE, operator of Ocesa and the Ticketmaster system in Mexico.

This unleashed a series of instabilities for CIE and delayed the sale of Ocesa to the world’s entertainment giant Live Nation, whose claims were made known since 2019 but could not materialize until December 2021. Only then did Live Nation own 51 % of the shares of Ocesa whose great business, it is said, is not the almost 15 venues for massive events under its power, but the sums that the Ticketmaster system moves.

Profeco vs. Ticketmaster

Profeco launched a call for “Class Action against Ticketmaster” for those who have suffered the unilateral cancellation of their purchase or a refusal to return the amount paid. It is possible to find out in detail at the following link: bit.ly/3iQnsls

ricardo.quiroga@eleconomista.mx