Lovecats vs Fat Cats: The Cure’s Robert Smith says Ticketmaster will partly refund fees for The Cure shows

Site apparently agreed that fees, which more than doubled price of tickets, were ‘unduly high’

Robert Smith, the frontman of The Cure, has announced that Ticketmaster will issue partial refunds to fans after complaints about excessive fees on the site.

The fees, in some cases, had more than doubled the price of a ticket to see the English rock band on their Songs of a Lost World tour.

“After further conversation, Ticketmaster have agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are unduly high, and as a gesture of goodwill have offered a $10 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for lowest ticket price transactions,” Smith tweeted on Thursday evening (16 March), all in capital letters.

“And a $5 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for all other ticket price transactions, for all Cure shows at all venues.

“If you already bought a ticket you will get an automatic refund; all tickets on sale tomorrow will incur lower fees.”

One fan had previously shared a screenshot of their purchase, which went viral, showing that buying four tickets at $20 had a service fee of $11.65 to each one, as well as a facility charge of $10 per ticket, and an order processing fee of $5.50.

That led to a total of $172.10 on $80 worth of tickets. Smith said earlier this week that he was “sickened” by the high prices.

The Cure’s Songs of a Lost World tour, which completed its European run in December, is coming to North America in May, June, and July of 2023.

The Cure in 2006 (Getty Images)

Tickets to the band’s North American shows went on sale on Wednesday 15 March, and The Cure had previously announced that tickets would be non-transferable to reduce resale and overpriced tickets.

While they had the “final say” on ticket pricing, they could not control any added fees from Ticketmaster.

Smith had told fans: “I am as sickened as you all are by today’s Ticketmaster ‘fees’ debacle.”