The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) has presented a letter to senators on both sides of the aisle, including Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Chair Maria Cantwell and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, requesting immediate action after evidence supported the staggering sale of 9,000 fake tickets for Oasis’ much-anticipated U.S. tour. Notably, the tickets in question were not released per the band’s plan, arriving before yesterday’s pre-sale and today’s official on-sale date. As an added factor of concern, prices exceeded face value.
In the letter published by NIVA Executive Director Steph Parker, the prominent need to address the issue at hand was forecasted by providing a breakdown, which frontlines the urgent nature to fortify change. Writing on behalf of U.S. independent venues, festivals, promoters, artists, and fans, the letter outlines evidence of the deceptive practices of so-called “predatory brokers and resale platforms,” collected between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. on the evening of Oct. 1.
The NIVA letter highlighted resale involvement: “Stubhub had 2,177 fake ticket listings across the three U.S. Oasis shows. The listings ranged in number of tickets for each listing from one to 20, with the overwhelming majority of listings selling two “tickets” (Exhibit A, B, and C). We found no listings with any warnings or messages that the “tickets” listed were not in the possession of the seller (Exhibit D, E, and F). We estimate that – conservatively – there were approximately 4,354 fake tickets listed on Stubhub across all three shows as of the evening of October 2nd.”
Outlining further data, “Vividseats had 1,725 fake ticket listings across the three U.S. Oasis shows. The listings ranged in number of tickets for each listing from 1 to ‘8+’ with the overwhelming majority of listings selling 2 tickets (Exhibit G, H, and I). We found a significant number of listings with no warning or messages that the tickets were not in the possession of the seller, including the most expensive tickets across all three nights (Exhibit J, K, and L). We estimate that – conservatively – there were approximately 3,450 fake tickets listed on Vividseats across all three shows as of the evening of October 2nd.”
Contributing to the mass grab and pressurized feel to purchase tickets, Vivid Seats shared further misinformation with fans, suggesting only 1% of tickets remained, void of the fact that approved sales had yet to begin.
As an added update, 40 minutes into Oasis’ official general on-sale, which featured two new cities in the concert mix: Pasadena, Calif. and East Rutherford, N.J., more fake tickets were listed on Subhub, totaling over 600 seats and (268 tickets for Pasadena and 398 tickets for East Rutherford).
Striking the mission of their letter, Parker imparts, “This letter is a defense of consumers and artists everywhere. It is not a defense of the publicly-traded, multinational conglomerate that’s promoting the tour, as they are under legal scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice and 40 state attorneys general – important work to level the playing field for the live entertainment ecosystem.”
Continuing, “We call on the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on predatory practices in the live space, including the sale of speculative or fake tickets, when Congress returns from recess following the election. We urge Congress to probe the ticket brokers and resale platforms empowering those brokers to sell fake tickets and use deceptive practices that victimize fans every day, including around the sale of Oasis tickets in the U.S.”
Read the full NIVA letter here.
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