Ticketmaster Receives A ‘Ticket’ of Their Own

1
justice.jpg

In news that may put smiles on the faces of some music fans, particularly those who enjoy a good Springsteen show, Ticketmaster has been served with subpoenas by the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission seeking information regarding it’s agreements with ticket re-sellers.

Not all that long ago, a number of Bruce Springsteen fans were angered over being re-directed to a re-seller website while trying to purchase tickets to some of the Jersey rocker’s upcoming shows. This not only angered the fans, but drew an angry reaction from Springsteen as well.justice

Although the company did make some peace offerings in the form of a $350,000 payment to the state of New Jersey and a random drawing for 1,000 fans who filed complaints, apparently that was not enough to get them off the hook.

I don’t dare speculate that Springsteen’s well-known support of Democratic candidates has anything to do with it, however, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat from New York, is now making noise about legislation that would put the kibosh on shady practices that allegedly go on behind the scenes at the big ticket brokers like Ticketmaster.

Although talk of new legislation from the Washington crowd is often cause for concern, this time it could end up being something a lot of music fans could get behind. If the allegations about Ticketmaster’s practices are true, it’s clear that something has to be done about it.

In addition to the U.S. Justice Department and the FTC, it was also reported that the New Jersey attorney general and the Canadian Competition Bureau are looking into the matter. Needless to say, not good news for the execs at Ticketmaster.

1 thought on “Ticketmaster Receives A ‘Ticket’ of Their Own

  1. Once again, for the record, nothing will come of this. It is common knowledge here in Los Angeles that Ticketmaster regularly sells all of its good seats to concerts to “legal” ticket brokers. The good seats are gone before they ever go on sale to the general public. The ticket brokers – “legal” scalpers – then sell the good seats at a “market value” that they, the ticket brokers, agree on – usually at least 10 times the face value of the tickets. This has been going on for decades and will continue to go on. I have no doubt that the “esteemed” NY senator has purchased tickets for shows from these ticket brokers. Nothing will be done until legislation is introduced outlawing these “legal” ticket scalpers. In the meantime, regular Joes like you and me can always purchase the concert DVDs or, if we’re lucky, we can sit in the nose bleed seats a mile from the stage with an obstructed view.

Leave a Reply