Senate Judiciary Committee Watching Beyonce Ticket Sales

Senate Judiciary Committee has publicly reminded Ticketmaster that it's keeping an eye on the company ahead of the sale of Beyonce's highly-anticipated Renaissance tour tickets. The committee has warned Ticketmaster following Taylor Swift's "Era Tour" debacle.

On Thursday, February 2, Senate Judiciary Committee's official Twitter account sent a dig at Ticketmaster after Bey officially announced her upcoming "Renaissance World Tour." "We're watching, @Ticketmaster," it tweeted in response to an article about the tour announcement.

The dig at the ticket marketplace comes after a high-profile debacle during the pre-sale portion of singer Taylor Swift's upcoming tour late last year. The system meltdown resulted in thousands of her fans being unable to purchase tickets. Those disgruntled fans have since filed lawsuits against Ticketmaster, claiming antitrust violations, among other things.

Senators anticipate additional issues arising when Beyoncé tour tickets hit the market.

Suppose the same problems occur with Ticketmaster (as many believe they will). In that case, this could mean that Ticketmaster would have serious questions to answer, and their hold as one of the world's most prominent ticket outlets could be in jeopardy.

These concerns prompted the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing last month to investigate a "lack of competition" in the ticketing industry.

Ticketmaster faced more blowback over its handling of ticket sales when hundreds of fans were turned away from rapper Bad Bunny's December concert in Mexico.

The company later explained that an "unprecedented" number of fake tickets created "confusion," which sparked the unfortunate outcome.

Ticketmaster is trying to make sure it won't break anyone's soul who tries to buy tickets to Beyoncé's upcoming tour. Ticketmaster is staggering sales for Beyoncé's tour rather than releasing tickets for all the dates.

Ticketmaster said the North American leg of Beyoncé's tour would use Verified Fan technology "to ensure more tickets get in the hands of concertgoers" instead of going to brokers who resell them at exorbitant prices on the secondary market.

The Verified Fan program requires registration which the company said will help filter out buyers looking to resell tickets, and windows to register for the Verified Fan program for Beyoncé's tour will close at different times depending on the city.

The registration period is divided into three groups (A, B, C) based on city, like Group A for Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C.

According to a press release from Live Nation, fan demand has already exceeded the number of available tickets by more than 800% based on current registration numbers. However, even with these added dates, "it is still expected that the majority of interested fans will not be able to get tickets because demand drastically exceeds supply."