As DOJ Investigates Ticketmaster, Attorney General Merrick Garland Is a Swiftie


  • Taylor Swift fans apparently have one of their own in the Department of Justice: Attorney General Merrick Garland.
  • The Wall Street Journal reports he’s a die-hard Swiftie after Garland made Swift references in Senate testimony.
  • Even before ticketing chaos for Swift’s Eras Tour, the DOJ was reportedly investigating Ticketmaster.

When it comes to high ranking government officials, Swifties are not on their own, kid: Attorney General Merrick Garland is apparently a die-hard fan of the blockbuster singer-songwriter-director. 

Garland testified on Wednesday in a Senate Judiciary Commitee hearing regarding Department of Justice oversight — and slipped in a few references. When told that Senator Amy Klobuchar had material on antitrust, Garland said, “I know that all too well,” a reference to Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well.” Garland went on to add that he’s “pretty familiar” with Taylor Swift.

He’s not just familiar, and, to quote Swift, none of it was accidental: Garland is a bona fide Swiftie. The Wall Street Journal reports that Garland has almost all of Swift’s CDs displayed in his office, and his favorite song is “Shake It Off.” He plunged head first into Swiftie-dom with both her debut album and “Fearless,” which his two daughters would play when he drove them to school, Garland told the Journal. 

“My daughter sent me Midnights right away as a CD, which I appreciate is a little prehistoric at this point,” Garland told the Wall Street Journal. “And then she told me the playlist order in which I should listen to the songs.”

The Wall Street Journal did not clarify if Garland received his CD from Target, so whether or not he has access to “Hits Different” — one of the three songs included exclusively on “Midnights” CDs sold from Target —  remains elusive.

But right now there’s a not-so-invisible string tying together Garland’s DOJ and Swifties. Swifties experienced ticketing chaos during the mostly-Ticketmaster led sale for Swift’s Eras Tour, with bot attacks slowing the process and many fans finding themselves locked out of buying tickets. (When asked by the Journal if anyone at the DOJ had secured Eras Tour tickets, Garland said it was a “delicate” question.)

In the wake of the ticket sale chaos, Swifties and lawmakers alike coalesced around the impact that the 2010 Ticketmaster and Live Nation merger had on the industry and market concentration, and the impact it’s had on fans vying to get seats for their favorite artist.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held its own hearing on potential market concentration by Ticketmaster, where Joe Berchtold, the president and CFO of Live Nation Entertainment, apologized to Swifties, but maintained that the ticketing markets have never been more competitive. Live Nation Entertainment has stated before that the firm “takes its responsibilities under the antitrust laws seriously and does not engage in behaviors that could justify antitrust litigation, let alone orders that would require it to alter fundamental business practices.”

At the same time, the DOJ reportedly opened its own investigation into Ticketmaster even before the Taylor Swift tour sale, although Garland did not confirm or deny the existence of a DOJ investigation into Ticketmaster in his testimony. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on an investigation and Garland’s love of Swift.

“We know ‘all too well’ the importance of competition in this industry, as in all other industries,” Garland said. “So you can be confident that in all of our work we approach it with an understanding that highly concentrated industries are a problem for competition.”

Do you have something to share about the ticketing industry? Contact this reporter at jkaplan@insider.com.



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