Ticketmaster Canada being sued for $500 million for alleged scalping

[st7860]

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Ticketmaster+faces+Canadian+class+action+lawsuit+o ver+ticketsnow/1270364/story.html
Ticketmaster Canada is facing a $500-million class-action suit from consumers who allege tickets are being diverted away from ticketmaster.ca to be sold on Ticketmaster's more expensive ticket-brokering site, ticketsnow.com.

The lawsuit, launched in Toronto today, contends that the selling of tickets on ticketsnow.com contravenes Ontario's anti-scalping legislation. It also alleges that fees and surcharges levied by Ticketmaster violate Ontario laws.

Henryk Krajewski, a Toronto resident who bought two concert tickets for $533.65 (including service charges) is the initiating plaintiff. His tickets would have cost him $133 on ticketmaster.ca if they had been available. Instead, Ticketmaster's website directed him to ticketsnow.com.

"The mere fact that Ticketmaster has a financial interest in both retail and premium ticket sales leads to an obvious question about the process by which those tickets are sold to members of the public and how it works," said Jay Strosberg of Toronto's Sutts Strosberg LLP, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiff. Vancouver's Branch McMaster is also on the file.

Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have anti-scalping laws. B.C. does not.

The suit is filed on behalf of all people who bought tickets for an event in Ontario from Ticketmaster or ticketsnow.com from Feb. 9, 2007 to present.

Ticketmaster did not respond immediately to a request for comment

[Jaytee]

I read that earlier today, one word........SWEEEET!

[bokep]

I saw a little segment on TV regarding scalpers a few months back. It was when Ticketmaster was in the process of buying ticketsnow.com. I thought it was BS.

Down with the scalpers. And Ticketmaster.

[nufan]

thats funny

[Justine]

It's about time. I hate ticketmaster, it's so difficult to get tickets from them, and they have a huge monopoly.

[Madchester]

Ticketbastard getting its just desserts. I don't buy scalped tickets, so it's the service charges that grind my gears.

[st7860]

its silly how they even charge a fee for etickets

[EmperorOfCanada]

I hope they get a strong slap on the wrist.

[Hunter316]

I hope they get a strong slap on the wrist.

+1 although I think that $500 million is more than a slap on the wrist so I hope they get a foot up their A$$ along with it.

[Doc_]

Excellent!! it's about time someone took these crooks to court for this. In BC they immediately transfer all tickets to their sister site and raise the price 1000 %.

[luthair]

I wasn't overly happy when looking @ AC/DC tickets to get referred to a scalping site selling them at 4x the cost.

As it stands now, they have a vested interest in selling tickets to scalpers er.. "brokers" as they get the original sale, then a chunk of a second sale.

[Ebola]

I hope they get owned.

[AcidBomber]

About time someone goes up against TicketMasters!
It'll be interesting to see how this will be played out.

[Bincent]

I wonder if thats why some artists go with Live Nation instead...

I have no idea whether Live Nation is any better though..

[Snicla]

its silly how they even charge a fee for etickets

+1

ticketmaster sucks

[Evil Baby]

To me it would depend on how Ticket Master operates TickesNow. If TicketMaster sells tickets directly to TicketsNow without allowing normal people the chance to buy those tickets then yes they should be charged.

However if all it is, is another broker then this is nothing more than sour grapes. People have been buying tickets for years and selling them on Ebay at higher rates than list price. That is supply and demand.

So what if ticketmaster wants to direct people to another site besides ebay, perhaps a site they make money from?

[KorruptioN]

Crooks they are. Charging you for the privilege of printing your own PDF ticket? they better lose this.

[thehockeyguy]

they probably make alot of money through ticketexchange and ticketsnow anyways.. so many $500 mill to them is not much.. lol

[originalnutta]

God i hate TM so much.

It was a bloody PITA to try and get Russell Peters tickets this past week.


Sure i didn't mind paying overpriced tickets with TM's taxes on top of that, but i'll be damned if i could find a pair of seats together. And this was during the presale.

Everytime i wanted to change what they offered me, i would have to do the damn spambuster login.

And then when i wanted to cancel a pair of gold seats, they said it was non refundable.

Fantastic.

[blainehamilton]

$500 million for the FIRST lawsuit.

You can bet lawyers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba will nail them for another $500 million to $1 billion immediately after.

The monopoly Ticketmaster has is just rediculous. There is nothing convenient about their 'convenience charges'.

And charging to print your own tickets at home??!!??


LET THEM BURN!

[Stock R]

its silly how they even charge a fee for etickets

Stuff like that pisses me off. It's the same w/ all the other ticket websites. To get your tickets, it's either: mail ($3), will-call ($3), print-at-home ($3).

You have no choice but to pay them $3 a ticket, even if it doesn't cost them anything w/ the self printing option.

I hope they get owned.

+1

To me it would depend on how Ticket Master operates TickesNow. If TicketMaster sells tickets directly to TicketsNow without allowing normal people the chance to buy those tickets then yes they should be charged.


I tried to buy some concert tickets for the future in-laws once. Only very crappy tickets were available on TicketMaster... so on their website they refer you to TicketsNow, where magically TONS of great seats are still available at 4x the price. I had NO choice to buy those tickets from TicketMaster.

[Evil Baby]

I tried to buy some concert tickets for the future in-laws once. Only very crappy tickets were available on TicketMaster... so on their website they refer you to TicketsNow, where magically TONS of great seats are still available at 4x the price. I had NO choice to buy those tickets from TicketMaster.


And if it can be proven that TM sold those tickets to TN before anybody else then they should be charged out of the wazzu(is that how you spell it?), but if that is just a case of scalpers buying the tickets faster than other people then it's not TM's fault.

I know online ticket scalpers use programs to help them purchase tickets more quickly than anybody else can and I know TM does everything it can to stop those programs from working, but programmers are still able to get their programs to work.

[Djayjay]

Maybe try this.....

Call ticket master and try and get great seats, when the say those are sold, say I kinda figured that, but can you reach over to the desk beside you and pull out 4 ticket from the ticketsnow pile. See what they say about that:lol:

Maybe they need to have a 4 -6 ticket max per request. Or promoters have the venue run their own ticket selling.

[CeoOfKFC]

its silly how they even charge a fee for etickets

Not really. Any of the travel booking sites i.e Orbitz etc charge a fee as well for booking etickets. Its a common charge for any type of booking site where e-tickets are involved.

[Stock R]

Not really. Any of the travel booking sites i.e Orbitz etc charge a fee as well for booking etickets. Its a common charge for any type of booking site where e-tickets are involved.

Common doesn't make it right.

[shannn]

Not too familiar w/ the law...but what is stopping Ticketmaster (if they lose the case) from eventually passing this cost onto the consumer (i.e. charging booking/service fees for tickets and such)?

[pintobean]

When The Killers announced that they'd play at the ACC on January 23, 2009 I decided to buy tickets. On the morning that the tickets went on sale I logged into my Ticketmaster account and waited... As soon as the sale opened at 10:00am, I tried to purchase tickets in the floor section, but got the dreaded notice that they were already sold out. I was floored at how fast they went.

I immediately checked "Ticketsnow" and saw that they already had floor seats listed there for four times the face value, even though it was only 10:01am. I also checked Ticketmaster's "Marketplace" section, and they also had floor tickets available there for way above face value.

It became immediately obvious to me that Ticketmaster was holding back tickets from the general sale and scalping them on Ticketsnow. There is simply no way that another ticket broker could have completed a purchase of floor seats on Ticketmaster and then listed them on Ticketsnow in less than 2 minutes.

I will be following this class action lawsuit very closely, but I'm not holding my breath that anything will happen to Ticketmaster. I suspect that they will simply make some sort of a deal whereby they will agree to give away free tickets to some shows to underpriviliged kids or something like that. The actual ticket-buying public that got scammed will get nothing. :mad:

[Mario38]

To me it would depend on how Ticket Master operates TickesNow. If TicketMaster sells tickets directly to TicketsNow without allowing normal people the chance to buy those tickets then yes they should be charged.

However if all it is, is another broker then this is nothing more than sour grapes. People have been buying tickets for years and selling them on Ebay at higher rates than list price. That is supply and demand.

So what if ticketmaster wants to direct people to another site besides ebay, perhaps a site they make money from?

There is a big difference. If I buy tickets and resell them on a broker site or eBay, I take the risk. This transaction falls under the definition of supply and demand and capitalism.

But when TicketMaster does the same thing, it is a monopoly and should be illegal for two reasons. One, they control the whole market and therefore can drive the price up to whatever level they want. And second, they take no risk. Since they are the original brokers, any unsold tickets go back to the promoters. TicketMaster takes no risk and therefore it is not a valid supply and demand situation.

[bokep]

And if it can be proven that TM sold those tickets to TN before anybody else then they should be charged out of the wazzu(is that how you spell it?), but if that is just a case of scalpers buying the tickets faster than other people then it's not TM's fault.

I know online ticket scalpers use programs to help them purchase tickets more quickly than anybody else can and I know TM does everything it can to stop those programs from working, but programmers are still able to get their programs to work.

Yes I'm sure Ticketmaster is doing everything they can to stop their sister site from doing their job efficiently :rolleyes:

[Evil Baby]

There is a big difference. If I buy tickets and resell them on a broker site or eBay, I take the risk. This transaction falls under the definition of supply and demand and capitalism.

But when TicketMaster does the same thing, it is a monopoly and should be illegal for two reasons. One, they control the whole market and therefore can drive the price up to whatever level they want. And second, they take no risk. Since they are the original brokers, any unsold tickets go back to the promoters. TicketMaster takes no risk and therefore it is not a valid supply and demand situation.

Like I said, if it can be proven that TM is hording tickets for TN or selling tickets directly to TN before anybody else then they deserve to get sued into the ground, however if TN is just a broker site where anybody can sell tickets on the site for a small fee(same as ebay) than this is nothing more than sour grapes imo.

Yes I'm sure Ticketmaster is doing everything they can to stop their sister site from doing their job efficiently

I can tell you, knowing people that have written programs for TM they have done a lot to curtain said programs. As for TN, I'm not sure what the process for that site is.

[st7860]

Common doesn't make it right.

+1 , furthermore, I couldn't care less if its sour grapes or not. There are plenty of people annoyed at Ticketmaster for a good reason.

[bokep]

I can tell you, knowing people that have written programs for TM they have done a lot to curtain said programs. As for TN, I'm not sure what the process for that site is.

I'm well aware that Ticketmaster has an army of programmers to prevent programs from buying all their tickets. My point still stands.

[CeoOfKFC]

Common doesn't make it right.

You do realize what the charge is for right (the travel websites etc)?

Its a service charge for them to find you the cheapest flight/tickets/multiple airlines. They are not making any money off the flights themselves.

If you are against such a charge then just do not use these services. $6.99 isn't alot of money either and its definately not alot when these sites usually save you money by combining a roundtrip flight using multiple airlines.

In regards to ticketmaster's service fee... your paying for convenience....

Geez...Typical RFD... Not everything's free...

[bokep]

You do realize what the charge is for right (the travel websites etc)?

Its a service charge for them to find you the cheapest flight/tickets/multiple airlines. They are not making any money off the flights themselves.

If you are against such a charge then just do not use these services. $6.99 isn't alot of money either and its definately not alot when these sites usually save you money by combining a roundtrip flight using multiple airlines.

In regards to ticketmaster's service fee... your paying for convenience....

Geez...Typical RFD... Not everything's free...

Explain this convenience.

[st7860]

Explain this convenience.

yes, and ticketmaster shouldn't have the right to charge that fee for etickets that don't involve paper.

[Lone_Prodigy]

Explain this convenience.

It's not a convenience when it's pretty much the only way to buy tickets right away.

[Snicla]

In regards to ticketmaster's service fee... your paying for convenience....

Geez...Typical RFD... Not everything's free...

Then they shouldn't charge you extra to pick up the ticket yourself? If it's convenience and all.

[Pete Jones]

I wonder if thats why some artists go with Live Nation instead...

I have no idea whether Live Nation is any better though..

Guess what was announced this morning.

Ticketmaster and Live Nation are merging.

http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090210.wlivenationticketmaster0210/BNStory/Business/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090210.wlivenationticketmaster0210

Oh Well.

--Pete

[thehockeyguy]

watch for tickets to skyrocket when they merge together...

[CeoOfKFC]

Explain this convenience.

The convenience of booking tickets to an event from the comfort of your home via the internet/phone? Whether picking it up or printing it.

This is from wikipedia:

"Ticketmaster collects no part of advertised ticket prices, in lieu it adds services fees to recoup its costs."

Now IF this is true... they wouldn't be in business unless they charged these fees. Nor would any of the competition since most of them charge similiar fees. OR would you rather everyone just markup the ticket prices they are selling which you would still pay more but not have service fees.

Are people gonna complain about ANY company that charges a service/processing fee for a product or service they are providing?

Might as well start with the airlines... the grand-daddy of random fees.

[bokep]

The convenience of booking tickets to an event from the comfort of your home via the internet/phone? Whether picking it up or printing it.

This is from wikipedia:

"Ticketmaster collects no part of advertised ticket prices, in lieu it adds services fees to recoup its costs."

Now IF this is true... they wouldn't be in business unless they charged these fees. Nor would any of the competition since most of them charge similiar fees. OR would you rather everyone just markup the ticket prices they are selling which you would still pay more but not have service fees.

Are people gonna complain about ANY company that charges a service/processing fee for a product or service they are providing?

Might as well start with the airlines... the grand-daddy of random fees.

I have no problems with Ticketmaster making money. Don't make **** up.

How would you like it if you went to a store, pick up an item with a $10 tag, but when you get to the counter you get charged $18?

You don't see stores putting up tags with their at-cost prices and then charge the extra fees when you're checking out. Buying tickets should be the same. And yes I agree that airlines are *******s as well.

Also, if you're going to quote wikipedia and there's **** like
This section does not cite any references or sources.
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
right above the sentence you're quoting, you might not want to use it for your argument. Hearsay does nothing to help your point.

[Chuck Chorus]

+1

ticketmaster sucks

+ 2!!!

[st7860]

then they shouldn't charge you extra to pick up the ticket yourself? If it's convenience and all.

+1

[CeoOfKFC]

I have no problems with Ticketmaster making money. Don't make **** up.

How would you like it if you went to a store, pick up an item with a $10 tag, but when you get to the counter you get charged $18?

You don't see stores putting up tags with their at-cost prices and then charge the extra fees when you're checking out. Buying tickets should be the same. And yes I agree that airlines are *******s as well.

Also, if you're going to quote wikipedia and there's **** like

right above the sentence you're quoting, you might not want to use it for your argument. Hearsay does nothing to help your point.

I did not say you had problems with ticketmaster making money now did I? People does not mean you.

Again, as a consumer we have the decision to pay for it or not. If a service fee ticks consumers off to not want to use ticketmaster then so be it. Otherwise, pay for it.

So your saying that if they clearly advertised that these fees would be charged that it would change your opinion of Ticketmaster and these fees in general?

Seems so since your saying the big surprise of them in the checkout is what ticks you off.

In regards to Wikipedia. I didn't say it as a reliable or unreliable source. That is why I carefully worded that "IF it was actually true". And IF it is true then we know the purpose of the fees and how they make money. We can go dig up the annual report but I think this may be sufficient enough.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/58/58442.html

"Most of Ticketmaster's revenue comes from fees it adds to the face value of tickets."

[st7860]

I have no problems with Ticketmaster making money. Don't make **** up.

How would you like it if you went to a store, pick up an item with a $10 tag, but when you get to the counter you get charged $18?

You don't see stores putting up tags with their at-cost prices and then charge the extra fees when you're checking out. Buying tickets should be the same. And yes I agree that airlines are *******s as well.

Also, if you're going to quote wikipedia and there's **** like

right above the sentence you're quoting, you might not want to use it for your argument. Hearsay does nothing to help your point.

a lot of people don't know how unreliable wikipedia is

[bokep]

I did not say you had problems with ticketmaster making money now did I? People does not mean you.

Again, as a consumer we have the decision to pay for it or not. If a service fee ticks consumers off to not want to use ticketmaster then so be it. Otherwise, pay for it.

So your saying that if they clearly advertised that these fees would be charged that it would change your opinion of Ticketmaster and these fees in general?

Seems so since your saying the big surprise of them in the checkout is what ticks you off.

In regards to Wikipedia. I didn't say it as a reliable or unreliable source. That is why I carefully worded that "IF it was actually true". And IF it is true then we know the purpose of the fees and how they make money.

My opinion about ticketmaster would change if they also stopped investing in the scalping business, which is the main issue at hand.

Regardless of the purpose of the fees, it's a terrible business practice. Why not be upfront with your customers and tell them straight up what they're going to pay? The "convenience" charge is especially ludicrous.

[luthair]

I did not say you had problems with ticketmaster making money now did I? People does not mean you.

Again, as a consumer we have the decision to pay for it or not. If a service fee ticks consumers off to not want to use ticketmaster then so be it. Otherwise, pay for it.

The problem is there is often no other option.

[bolmsted]

There was a story about this last year on CBC Marketplace
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/ticket_takers/


I hate Ticket places like TicketMaster, Live Nation or other ticket scalpers. I think the Police should "ticket" all the scalpers outside of Union Station/ACC and Skydome and enforce the non-scalping laws. Yes laws, they are there to enforce. Seems they have no problem enforcing speeding tickets, etc but let these scum of the earth off. Ticketmaster is no different.

What makes them the 'exclusive' on these things? Do they have a 100 year lease on tickets like the gov't selling out the 407 from tax payers? Why don't people like 'The Boss' ask for the tickets to be sold to other sellers or does Ticketmaster have automatic rain on all (or prett much all) venues in Ontario?

I think I ordered from Massey Hall directly for an event but perhaps that's the only thing. I know ACC/Skydome just rents out the space and don't actually sell the tickets so you can't go to them.

this is just deserts for the years that ticketmaster has been scaming with exceptionally high prices and service fees and now charging many times over the face value for tickets that clearly couldn't have been bought by consumers to to be sold to TicketsNow as a convenience to offload tickets.

I never bought the "TicketsNow is a place for consumers to sell tickets for events they can no longer attend' for a second.

[loporjai2003]

More woes for TicketMaster.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/blenderburner/24780/springsteen-hard-to-be-a-saint-in-the-rock-n-roll-city/

[JebateVrag]

The solution is simple.
Boycott Ticketmaster.

[originalnutta]

The solution is simple.
Boycott Ticketmaster.

and not go to any of the events and shows in the city?


i'd do that, but there's about 3 million people who wouldn't.

[Feneant]

Best news I've heard in a while!

I remember looking for Coldplay tickets and a huge number of the tickets closest to the stage were all 'reserved' for Ticketmaster auctions.

I hope they have to pay out the entire amount because of their shady practices

[bubble.tea]

I had absolutely no idea this was going on in the first place. Obviously not a concert or game goer by any means.

I'm amazed this site exists in the first place. Where did people ever think the tickets were coming from anyway to be sold on the sister site? Obviously being redirected and essentially...'scalped'.

Here's a thought. If not all provinces have anti-scalping legislation won't TM only need to move the sister site to a province which doesn't-so they can continue doing it?

Seems people have a more secure vibe to paying scalped prices via secure methods rather forking out a Grand in cold hard cash in a downtown busy venue LOL.

[Drthorne]

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/02/25/ticketmaster-cohen.html

More complaints are surfacing about Ticketmaster, this time about inflated ticket prices for Leonard Cohen's upcoming concerts in Canada.

Ticketmaster's website says tickets don't go on sale until Thursday for most Canadian dates, but the company's affiliated website, TicketsNow, is already selling tickets to the shows for hundreds of dollars more than their face value.

Tickets for Cohen's tour are in high demand. The Canadian poet and musician is scheduled to perform at Hamilton's Copps Coliseum on May 19.

When told the tickets for Cohen's appearance in Hamilton were already on sale at TicketsNow, Copps Coliseum chief executive officer Duncan Gillespie was upset.

"Sometimes it's a matter [in] large corporations like that of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Is that understandable? Yes. Is that excusable? No. Do they need to correct it? Absolutely. We're not happy and I think fans are justifiably very unhappy," he said.

Tickets with a face value of $99 to $250 were being sold on TicketsNow.com for between $568 to $856, plus a service of charge ranging from $85 to $128 per ticket.

"The reality is that somebody will pay $1,000 for a Cohen ticket, but he [Cohen] wants to keep it at reasonable prices for people, so this undermines this totally," said Gillespie.

After hearing about the ticket sales from CBC, Gillespie contacted a senior official at Ticketmaster, who promised quick action.

Tickets for the Hamilton show are no longer available at TicketsNow. But tickets for Cohen's concerts in other Canadian cities are still for sale on the website.

Cohen is scheduled to appear in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg before his Hamilton performance.

Later this spring he will perform in Quebec City, Ottawa, Kingston and London, Ont.