Senators question Ticketmaster over competition in wake of Taylor Swift ticket debacle

WASHINGTON – Taylor Swift took center stage during the Senate’s Tuesday hearing to examine the lack of competition within the ticketing industry and grill

Ticketmaster executive following the company's mishandling of the music superstar's concert tickets.  Swift fans were furious after Ticketmaster canceled its

November general public ticket sale for the music star's highly anticipated new tour. Several days of turbulence during the verified fan presale resulted in hundreds of thousands

of snubbed fans who never got tickets.  Joe Berchtold, the president and CFO of Ticketmaster's parent company Live Nation Entertainment, defended his company,

testifying that "industrial scale ticket scalping" and an unprecedented amount of bots were responsible for the large-scale problems. Start the day smarter. Get all the news

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Ticketmaster debacle ramps up federal concerns, fans about tour tickets "In hindsight there are several things we could have done better," Berchtold said. "And

let me be clear, Ticketmaster accepts its responsibility as being the first line in defense against bots in our industry." Swift was not at the hearing.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the chairwoman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, criticized the company in a letter to

the company's President and CEO Michael Rapino.