The major ticketseller Ticketmaster has changed the language in its refund policy, which now only applies to events that are cancelled. The company’s previous refund policy stated “refunds are available if your event is postponed, rescheduled or canceled,” however the new language has omitted the words postponed or rescheduled.
This change comes after many concert tours and sporting events world wide have been postponed or cancelled, due to the global coronavirus pandemic. As Consequence of Sound noted, the company did not explicitly mention these changes anywhere on its refund page, however it offered tips to ticketholders of postponed or rescheduled events.
“If an event organizer is offering refunds for postponed or rescheduled events, a refund link will appear on your Ticketmaster account,” the page reads. “Otherwise, you are encouraged to periodically check back online to see if the status of their event has changed.”
The company revealed that they made these changes due to the widespread shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Their change in refund policies mirror that of StubHub, who were recently hit with a $5 million class action lawsuit over the changes in its refund policy.
“In the past, with a routine volume of event interruptions, we and our event organizers have been able to consistently offer more flexibility with refunds for postponed and rescheduled events,” Ticketmaster said. “However, considering the currently unprecedented volume of affected events, we are focused on supporting organizers as they work to determine venue availability, new dates and refund policies, while rescheduling thousands of events in what continues to be an evolving situation.