Ticketmaster Plays with Fire
As Ticketmaster navigates the tricky, shark infested waters that plague its pending merger with LiveNation, more trouble lies on the horizon. Ticketmaster just settled a lawsuit from New Jersey’s attorney general for $350,000 and agreeing not to link to their subsidiary TicketsNow off their main website. It all stemmed from the shady practice of forwarding fans to TicketsNow (a ticket seller on the secondary market) selling tickets for a steep markup once tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s tour flashed sold out. Canada has also filed a $500 million lawsuit against the company for the deception they’ve leveled on Canadian fans. Now Leonard Cohen fans are feeling the heat. Recent tour dates in NY sold out in seconds. Ticketmaster affiliate Ticketexchange had inventory for over $1000 a ticket available while prices on TicketsNow ran upward of $1900. This just highlights Ticketmaster’s questionable business practices and why they cannot be allowed even more power through the proposed consolidation with LiveNation. Congress should have heeded Pearl Jam’s advice back in the 1990s and splintered up this monopoly.
Source: NY Daily News