After three class action lawsuits in Canada, including one in Winnipeg, the Competition Bureau is rolling up its sleeves to investigate Ticketmaster.
The federal government will investigate allegations that the ticket giant gives tickets to its reselling subsidiary (TicketsNow), which then sells them at higher prices.
Ticketmaster has already paid out one settlement in the sum of $350,000. That case was dealt with in New Jersey, when fans of a Bruce Springsteen concert complained that the company inflated prices to unreasonable levels.
Earlier in the week, Ontario’s attorney general said he would take a look at complaints by some customers with similar concerns about not being sold tickets at a fair price.
— With files from The Canadian Press
Ticketmaster works to curb scalping
A ChrisD.ca reader informed us on Wednesday about some new guidelines Ticketmaster has apparently put in place to curb scalping.
While purchasing tickets to the upcoming No Doubt concert at the MTS Centre via Ticketmaster’s website, the customer did not have the option to have his tickets delivered to him. Usually Ticketmaster gives you the option to print your tickets, or have them mailed to you. In this case, the tickets would only be available for pick-up an hour before the show at the will call window. As per Ticketmaster’s usual pick-up guidelines, photo ID and the credit card used to purchase the tickets would need to be shown.
The tickets purchased were through a presale, and the most expensive seats on the floor at $103 a piece. Cheaper tickets in the 100 level and higher were not subject to this pick-up only rule and were still available to be printed or mailed.
We e-mailed Ticketmaster to ask about this new precaution and were told it’s to prevent the resale of tickets on such sites like eBay and Craigslist. Only the more expensive, floor seats are subject to these new implementations.
