The Cure’s Robert Smith said Ticketmaster will refund some money to fans after the rocker criticized the company for charging what he believed were unreasonably high fees.
Smith posted a series of tweets Tuesday and Wednesday, writing in all caps that the band wanted to keep tickets to their «Shows Of A Lost World Tour» at a reasonable price.
Before tickets went on sale, the band had saying that they had a range of prices at each show and were working with ticketing companies to stop scalpers, minimize scalpers, and keep ticket prices at face value.
But some fans took to social media to share photos of service fees, facility charges and order processing fees that sent prices skyrocketing. One photo it showed that the fees alone added up to more than the $80 the person would pay for four tickets.
In a separate post Thursday, Smith said he had further discussions about fees and that Ticketmaster had agreed to refund fans who had already purchased a ticket. In the future, tickets will have lower rates, he posted.
Ticketmaster has said it doesn’t control fees, but it does keep a portion for operating costs. In most cases, venues set and maintain rates, the company said in a Feb. 7 statement. blog post.
“Similarly, venues have a lot of expenses, including employing staff and keeping up with the rising costs of putting on shows, including building upgrades, insurance, paying vendors and more. If these fees were to drop, venues may have to charge performers more rent per night, which would likely result in higher face value ticket prices,” the Ticketmaster post said.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Ticketmaster has come under intense scrutiny in recent months as fans scramble to get tickets. In November, he canceled general ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s tour because demand for the Verified Fan sale was too high and led to «insufficient remaining ticket inventory.» Fans sued Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s parent company, in December.
Following the fiasco, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to examine Ticketmaster’s role in the ticketing industry and questioned whether its 2010 merger with Live Nation has unfairly harmed customers.