LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Ticketmaster has been accused of quietly modifying their refund policy to only offer refunds for events that have been canceled.
A quick look at their refund page shows that this appears to be the case with the company now promising refunds only if a show has been canceled, with some exceptions carved out for Major League Baseball and US Open events.
However, as the New York Times noted, that is a marked change from the company’s previous refund policy. An image captured on March 13th by the Times of the pre-revision refund page shows that Ticketmaster used to offer refunds for shows that had been “postponed, rescheduled, or canceled.”
The change comes just a day after Live Nation provided investors with an update on their financial situation that included a glimpse into the scope of refunds requested for concerts and events affected by the pandemic.
According to Live Nation, just one thousand of eight thousand affected shows have been outright canceled, with the lion’s share of events postponed indefinitely, allowing the promoter to defer associated refund costs for those shows.
Per Live Nation’s statement, that amounts to 14 million tickets, roughly 90% of tickets to shows impacted.
A rep from Ticketmaster told the New York Times that it is true they changed the language on their refund page but said it was simply to clarify their policy, which has been in place for years.
Live Nation’s Ticketmaster is not the only ticketing service that has abruptly changed its refund policy. Last week, StubHub, which purports to be the largest ticket resale services, announced that it was shifting away from refunds to vouchers worth 120% of the ticket price that would be useable for future ticket purchases on StubHub.
The move has prompted at least one lawsuit already after a Wisconsin man hit Stubhub with a $5 million lawsuit after they declined to provide a refund to tickets purchased for a professional hockey game.
