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Hordes of livid Australian consumers and K-pop fans have accused Ticketmaster of unfair and “very predatory” ticketing practices that they say will induce panic-buying when tickets for BTS’s highly anticipated Arirang world tour go on sale.
Ticketmaster, the ticketing vendor of the tour’s Australian leg, has turned a deaf ear to pleas from fans to release seating tiers and prices ahead of time, leaving consumers furious that they will only be able to access pricing information 30 minutes before tickets go on sale.
Ticket prices for the June 2 pre-sale will stay hidden until customers enter a digital “waiting room” half an hour before the launch, leaving buyers with just minutes to choose tickets, coordinate with friends and enter payment details or risk losing their spot in the queue.
Outraged fans have swarmed social media posts and penned an open letter urging the US-headquartered conglomerate to reconsider, saying the lack of upfront pricing would exacerbate financial stress as tickets are expected to run upwards of $500.
“Withholding ticket pricing information until your consumers are already in the waiting room or actively within the sale process places fans in an unnecessary and completely avoidable position of difficulty and stress,” stated fan account BTS_Australia in an open letter to Ticketmaster.
“We are unable to make complete, informed financial decisions before entering an extremely high-pressured purchasing environment during an already stressful cost of living crisis.”
BTS’ global fanbase, estimated to be upwards of 90 million, identify as “ARMY” and are some of the most dedicated and mobilised around the world. The BTS Arirang world tour is on track to be the biggest K-Pop tour of all time as the first full-scale tour since 2019 after the seven members took a three-year hiatus to complete their mandatory South Korean military service.
Ticketmaster is expected to sell more than 230,000 tickets in total across BTS’ four Australian shows in February 2027, when they will play in Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on February 12 and 13 and in Sydney’s Accor Stadium on February 20 and 21.
Across hundreds of posts and comments on Ticketmaster’s social media channels, netizens pointed out they needed adequate time to consider travel expenses, accommodation costs, family budgets, work arrangements and payment options, on top of the cost of the tickets themselves.
“It comes across as very predatory given that you are forcing people to make large financial decisions under a time limit,” one person commented.
Another claimed that hiding prices falsely inflated demand as some would not be attempting to buy tickets if they knew how much they cost. “More people in the queue equals higher demand equals higher price. This practice should be illegal,” they said.
Ticketmaster declined to comment on detailed questions from this masthead. The ticketing platform, which merged with Live Nation in 2010, is the biggest ticket seller in the world and controls more than 70 per cent of the live entertainment ticketing market in the US, where a federal jury there last month found the company was operating an illegal monopoly.
Ticketmaster determines service and processing fees, but not the base price of the ticket or ticket price ranges, which are determined by the “event organiser” and at times finalised shortly before they go on sale. Ticketmaster will not use surge or dynamic pricing.
Ticketmaster declined to clarify whether BTS’ parent company Big Hit Music was the “event organiser”. Big Hit Music was contacted for comment.
Frustration from Australian fans has been exacerbated by the fact that their peers in other countries have not had to undergo the same experience: due to more stringent consumer laws in Asian countries such as South Korea and Taiwan, pricing information must be announced at the same time that the official ticketing page goes live.
While Australian consumer law protects against drip pricing, or the practice of adding on extra costs and fees at checkout, it does not mandate how soon before a product or service goes on sale that its prices must be announced.
“The [Australian consumer law] does not require businesses to state the price of their goods or services for a certain period in advance before offering them for sale,” said an ACCC spokesperson.
“If a business clearly and accurately displays its prices prior to a consumer booking, ordering or purchasing, and does not otherwise mislead or deceive consumers as to price, that business is unlikely to be in breach of the ACL.”
The watchdog is looking at a “wide range of practices” that businesses use to manipulate or mislead consumer decision-making in digital environments, pointing to a government bill that will introduce a general ban on unfair trading practices to consumer law.
Microeconomist and Macquarie University senior lecturer in economics Dr Paul Crosby said the 30-minute waiting room period was not a neutral environment but created high-pressure conditions that made it harder to properly assess value and intensified fear of missing out.
“Missing out on a scarce ticket can feel more painful and immediate than the financial cost of buying one,” said Crosby.
“A sales process can be lawful and still create a poor decision environment for consumers, especially when people are being asked to make expensive choices under pressure.”
Criticism of Ticketmaster’s market power reached a crescendo when the pre-sale for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour went live in late 2022, when Ticketmaster’s website froze or crashed under the demand and fans sat in waiting rooms for as much as eight hours. Ticketmaster cancelled the general public sale, saying tickets had run out.
Some eagle-eyed BTS fans have already uncovered early indicators of ticket prices tucked away in the terms and conditions of Channel 7’s The Morning Show’s ticket giveaways. Two competition winners will each receive four E-reserve tickets, valued at $399.80.
”The million-dollar question now is how terrifying are the VIP package prices about to be,” said the Facebook admin of a BTS fan group.
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