Ticketmaster Class Action Lawsuit

[BrknFngrs]

Took a quick glance and didn't see this mentioned anywhere; should be interesting to see what happens.

$500 Million Class Action Lawsuit Launched Against Ticketmaster
Published: Monday, February 09, 2009

A $500 million class action lawsuit has been launched in Ontario against Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc., Ticketmaster Canada Ltd., TNow Entertainment Group, Inc. and Premium Inventory, Inc.

The lawsuit alleges ticketmaster conspired to sell tickets to populare event at inflated prices through a ticket brokerage owned by Ticketmaster.

The lawsuit was launched Monday claiming Ticketmaster conspired to divert tickets to popular events away from Ticketmaster's lower priced website available to the general public.

The lawsuit says the general public was diverted to ticketsnow which is its ticket brokering website, where the same tickets were sold at a premium price.

The suit says the practise of selling tickets for amounts that exceed their face prices contravenes Ontario's anti-scalping legislation.

It also says the fees and surcharges issued to customers by Ticketmaster violate Ontario legislation. The lawsuit stems from someone who purchased two concert tickets for $533.65 including service charges but excluding shipping costs. He says the same tickets would have cost him $133.00 on Ticketmaster's website if they had been available. The Ticketmaster website directed him to the more expensive tickets on the TicketsNow website.

Luciana Brasil of Branch McMaster, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiff says,"Customers have voiced concerns over the fact that tickets for the most popular events can ostensibly sell out in minutes, only to become immediately available in the secondary market at much higher prices."

Jay Strosberg of Sutts Strosberg LLP, another lawyer representing the plaintiff says, "It is reasonable to expect consumers to be curious about the process by which tickets are sold to them."

"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."

The class action was commenced on behalf of all persons who purchased tickets for an event in Ontario from Ticketmaster or through TicketsNow.com from and after February 9, 2007.

http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/ont...tml?id=1270302

[Nufy]

Good...

Burn those MF'ers in hell along with their service and convenience charges...

[Canmorite]

So many extra useless charges. Pain in the ass, but they can get away with it (mostly) while having a monopoly.

[Toms-SC]

I bet this will work as well as the UPS one. Oh wait....

[CUG]

I cannot STAND unethical business practice. What a bunch of fucking hacks.

[TKRIS]

Strosberg was on the CBC last night when I was driving home. Unless Ticketmaster did an absolutely bangup job of covering their ass with proxies (and I don't see how that's possible without going outside of the company and having a second party fall guy), this should be a done deal.

I've had an interest in this for awhile now. There was a story on TV (can't remember what program) a couple years ago when Ticketmaster was in talks with Tickets Now.
Basically, Tickets Now was an independent broker who's clients used software to defeat security on the Ticketmaster webpage (the simplistic "Type in the numbers" kind) to buy huge lots of tickets for resale on Tickets Now. There was some speculation that Tickets Now shared much more responsibility in this than simply being a broker, because as the largest of their kind, the hackers and frauds were, in essence, employees. At that time, they were talking about how a lawsuit may be possible, but that Ticketmaster would likely have to be the one to launch it, and they didn't seem to concerned beyond a superficial public relations standpoint. It was also pointed out that, if they wanted, Ticketmaster could pretty easily implement stronger security that would make it much, much, much more difficult for software to buy these ticket lots. But, they seemed more interested in buying Tickets now and getting in on the action themselves.


I have no sympathy for TM. They found a way to skirt "face value" laws by implementing their outrageous service fees and delivery charges (which too many of you morons were willing to consistently pay), but that wasn't enough for them. They needed to go deeper, and now they're going to get called on it. Fuck them.
Also worth noting, they've just signed a huge exclusive contract with the #1 concert promoter in North America, so not only are they gouging consumers at an unprecedented and unbelievable rate, but they have a complete monopoly on all live entertainment on a scale any bigger than a local band playing the neighborhood pub.

I guess Eddie Vedder wasn't crazy after all...

[Redlyne_mr2]

It's almost impossible to get good seats from those fools... hope they loose.

[Nitzer5]

Is it even possible to buy concert tickets somewhere besides Ticketmaster? Trying to buy a $20 ticket for Winterlseep, Ticketmaster charges are $5.50. While not a lot, they do make up more than 1/4 of the ticket price itself which is complete bullshit. Freakin' monopoly.

[TKRIS]

Mr. Burns: (chuckles) And to think, Smithers, you laughed when I bought TicketMaster. "Nobody's going to pay a 100% service charge."
Smithers: Well, it's a policy that ensures a healthy mix of the rich and the ignorant, sir.

[qcp1]

Originally posted by Nitzer5
Is it even possible to buy concert tickets somewhere besides Ticketmaster? Trying to buy a $20 ticket for Winterlseep, Ticketmaster charges are $5.50. While not a lot, they do make up more than 1/4 of the ticket price itself which is complete bullshit. Freakin' monopoly.

Not really because ticketmaster secures exclusive rights to sell tickets for many venues. meaning they have a contract with the saddledome that any venues held there are for them. they also have exclusive contracts for NFL NHL and MLB tickets. if that isnt a monopoly i dont know what is

[theken]

TM is bullshit

[Thaco]

yeah, TM is such bullshit, i tried to get tickets for the habs game (for a family member) the minute they came out i was online and on the phone for 3 hours trying to secure tickets, there were none to be had, the guy on the phone even said that sometimes they don't have any tickets to release to the general public because the corporations buy them all... total bullshit.

[Dumbass17]

Originally posted by Nufy
Good...

Burn those MF'ers in hell along with their service and convenience charges...

+1.2

[chkolny541]

Originally posted by qcp1


Not really because ticketmaster secures exclusive rights to sell tickets for many venues. meaning they have a contract with the saddledome that any venues held there are for them. they also have exclusive contracts for NFL NHL and MLB tickets. if that isnt a monopoly i dont know what is

nearly EVERY event has tickets through ticketmaster,i cant understand how no one has intervened in their monopolization of event ticket selling