Ticketmaster issued an apology to Bad Bunny fans who were turned away from the rap star’s concert in Mexico City Friday after their tickets were falsely called counterfeit and rejected.
In a statement posted to Ticketmaster Mexico’s social media pages, the company said that an “unprecedented” number of fake tickets scanned at the event overwhelmed their systems, leading to hundreds of actual tickets being lumped in with the counterfeits when they were scanned.
The rejected tickets led to large sections of empty seats inside Estadio Azteca during Bad Bunny’s show, while some of the angry fans who were unable to get in tried to climb stadium fencing and were detained by security guards. Ticketmaster is offering refunds to those who bought legitimate tickets and were unable to get into the show and is working with Mexico’s Office of the Federal Prosecutor for the Consumer to “clarify facts, attend to and reply to the affected customers.”
Bad Bunny’s pair of shows at Estadio Azteca mark the end of his 78-show world tour in 2022, with over $420 million in ticket grosses reported and every show selling out. It has set a new record for the most lucrative tour in Latin music history.
But with fans who paid hundreds if not thousands in U.S. dollars getting denied entry this weekend, Ticketmaster faces yet more scrutiny. Last month, the live music giant faced overwhelming demand for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour during presales from both fans of the pop star and bots created by scalpers to swipe up tickets, so much so that Ticketmaster had to cancel the general sale for the artist’s tour.
The presale chaos led to vocal criticism not only from Swift herself, but also from politicians like Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee, who announced a subcommittee to investigate the near-monopoly on ticketing owned by Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment. The Department of Justice has also turned up the heat on Live Nation, with an antitrust investigation already underway prior to the Swift presale.
