Ticketmaster is planning a mandatory Covid-19 vaccine verification policy for concert attendance.
Ticketmaster said it is exploring a number of safety features that events organisers may want to use, including checks on test and vaccine status, but entry requirements will be up to organisers.
It has been claimed on Twitter and Instagram that the ticketing events company Ticketmaster is planning to make it mandatory for people to prove they have had a Covid-19 vaccine in order to attend concerts. This is not correct.
In a statement on its US website, Ticketmaster said there is “absolutely no requirement from Ticketmaster mandating vaccines/testing for future events”.
Instead, the company said it is exploring new safety features that events organisers may choose to use once events, such as concerts, begin again. This could include finding a way for digital tickets to be linked to vaccine status, but also to things like negative Covid-19 test results or health declarations.
These social media posts have focussed purely on the possibility of vaccine status being used to determine whether someone can attend a concert, not these other factors.
Ticketmaster said this is “still just a potential idea and is not being implemented at this time”, and that if it were implemented all health information would be stored with a third party health care provider rather than with Ticketmaster.
It added: “Ticketmaster does not have the power to set policies around safety/entry requirements, which would include vaccines and/or testing protocols. That would always be up to the discretion of the event organizer, based on their preferences and local health guidelines.”
This means that if the organiser of a concert or other event wanted to make proof of a vaccine or a negative Covid-19 test mandatory in order to attend the event, Ticketmaster plans to be able to help them do this. However, this is a decision that individual events organisers will make, rather than Ticketmaster itself.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as partly false because Ticketmaster has not said it will be making proof of Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory for concert attendance, though it may offer this option to event organisers.
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