Bad Bunny, pictured performing on stage in Philadelphia in September, wrapped up an international tour in Mexico City last weekend – but many fans were denied entry after being told their tickets they are illegal.
According to Wargo/Getty Images for Roc Nation
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According to Wargo/Getty Images for Roc Nation
Bad Bunny, pictured performing on stage in Philadelphia in September, wrapped up an international tour in Mexico City last weekend – but many fans were denied entry after being told their tickets they are illegal.
According to Wargo/Getty Images for Roc Nation
The Mexican president is hoping Bad Bunny can salvage a day after another Ticketmaster scam kept hundreds of ticket-holders out of his concerts last weekend.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador is calling on the Puerto Rican reggaeton star to perform for free in Mexico City’s Zócalo square, said in wednesday daily briefing that the government could pay for the lighting, theatrical and sound systems – and even install a zip line in the central square.
López Obrador admitted that Bad Bunny – who had just finished his international tour in Mexico and plan to rest in 2023 – “overworked and exhausting”, but suggested he might consider the request as he is a “supportive” and “sensitive” person, according to guard.
“We were moved to see young people upset because they couldn’t get in because their tickets were faked, because they were cheated, some cried,” the president added. “They saved so long to be able to buy their tickets.”
Bad Bunny has not commented publicly on the ticket incident or the president’s request. NPR has reached out to the singer’s team for comment.
About 80,000 fans attended the final two performances of his “World’s Hottest Tour” at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca – biggest stadium in Latin America – last Friday and Saturday. But hundreds of others were denied entry to the venue after being told the tickets they had purchased through Ticketmaster were invalid.
According to Profeco, Mexico’s consumer watchdog, a total of 1,600 faulty tickets were reported on the first night and 110 on the second night.
Azteca Stadium said on friday that it canceled access for some fans for safety reasons after Ticketmaster Mexico “discovered instances of ticket copying and/or counterfeiting,” NBC News reported.
Mexican regulators allege the problem is because Ticketmaster has oversold tickets and is seeking to hold the company accountable through fines and refunds.
Profeco chief Ricardo Sheffield told local media over the weekend that an investigation had found that many tickets with fake names were actually purchased through legitimate channels.
“The ticket seller claimed they were fakes, but they were all issued by them,” he said, according to the billboard.
Sheffield says Ticketmaster Mexico owes all affected fans a full refund plus a 20% compensation fee. It could be fined up to 10% of total sales in 2021.
Sheffield added: “Since we are the financial institution, if they don’t want to pay as they please we will confiscate their account and they will pay because they have to.”
Ticketmaster Mexico denies overcrowding or oversold complaints in a statement posted in Spanish on Twitter, which says more than 4.5 million people have signed up for a total of 120,000 tickets.
“On Friday, an unprecedented number of fake tickets, not purchased through our official channels, were presented at the gate,” the company said, according to an AP translationadded that the entrances caused “temporary disruptions in the ticketing system, which unfortunately momentarily prevented the receipt of a valid ticket.”
The company has also apologized to affected ticket holders and has agreed to pay them the return fee and compensation, NBC News reported. Meanwhile, Sheffield says his office has received enough consumer complaints that it is preparing to file a class-action lawsuit.
That will be Such a second case against the ticketing giant: Taylor Swift fans filed a lawsuit earlier this month accusing Ticketmaster and its parent company of fraud and antitrust violations after Eras Tour ticket sales failed.
The US Department of Justice has report opened an antitrust investigation into the company even before Swift snafu, which prompted many Democratic lawmakers to call for regulation and several state attorneys general to launch investigations protecting consumers.
