The Cure frontman Robert Smith says he is “sickened” by Ticketmaster charges

Ticketmaster is once more arousing the ire of concertgoers after followers of the favored ’80s British band The Cure complained on social media about having to pay processing charges that exceeded the face worth of the tickets.

The Cure priced tickets for its upcoming North American tour as little as $20 after pledging to make the exhibits reasonably priced for followers. The group additionally wrote on its website that it labored with its ticketing companions to thwart scalpers and keep away from inflated resale costs.

Despite these efforts, some tickets have been going for greater than double their base worth on Wednesday after followers added up the prices of Ticketmaster’s facility fees, service and order processing charges. 

Cure frontman Robert Smith tweeted that he was “sickened” by the Ticketmaster price “debacle” and had no management over the location’s fees. “I’ve been asking how [the fees] are justified,” he wrote. “If I get something coherent by means of a solution I’ll allow you to all know.”

TicketMaster didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Ticketmaster has lengthy drawn criticism for its gross sales practices. In December, the service confronted a widespread backlash, in addition to a lawsuit, when it canceled a public sale of Taylor Swift tour tickets after sky-high demand brought on its web site to crash. And in February, concertgoers bemoaned technical difficulties in utilizing Ticketmaster and lengthy traces after making an attempt to snag Beyonce tour tickets. 

The flood of complaints over the Swift ticket debacle additionally attracted scrutiny from lawmakers. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel earlier this 12 months held a listening to over whether or not Live Nation Entertainment — the corporate that owns Ticketmaster — and a number of other different ticket service suppliers violated legal guidelines to protect competitors and ought to be damaged up. 

The Justice Department can also be investigating whether or not Live Nation has abused its energy over the multibillion-dollar live performance trade.