As more and more concerts are either rescheduled, postponed or canceled amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Ticketmaster has reportedly changed its refund policies.
According to The New York Times, the ticket distribution company, which is owned by Live Nation, first said they would offer refunds for events that were postponed, rescheduled or canceled in a blog post published to their website on March 12. Now, the post has been reportedly updated to reflect that refunds will only be issued when an event has already been canceled.
“As always, canceled events are automatically refunded. If an event organizer is offering refunds for postponed or rescheduled events, a refund link will appear on your Ticketmaster account,” Ticketmaster’s blog post reads. “Otherwise, you are encouraged to periodically check back online to see if the status of their event has changed.”
Therefore, if an event is rescheduled or postponed, Ticketmaster will only offer refunds if the concert organizer provides them. This poses a problem for those who hold tickets for concerts that remain in limbo amidst the pandemic.
As second-hand broker company, StubHub is also promoting a similar policy.
“If the event is postponed, ticket buyers can choose to either attend the event on the new date or resell the ticket,” the company told USA TODAY. “If the event is postponed to a future, undetermined date, StubHub will email the ticket holder as soon as the details are announced.”
The New York Times also reports that StubHub was sued last week by a Wisconsin man over their new policy, which instead offers concert vouchers to ticket holders, in lieu of money refunds.
According to the Times, Ticketmaster has maintained that its refund policy hasn’t changed, and instead claims they only reworded the policy to clarify their refund process.
Last month, Live Nation announced the postponing of all upcoming tours due to Coronavirus. Several festivals, such as Coachella, SXSW and Rolling Loud, have also been canceled or rescheduled.