Congress Investigating Ticketmaster And TicketsNow.Com For Deceptive Business Practices
When tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s new tour went on sale at 9:00 a.m. on February 2, 2009, fans had only one option to purchase tickets: exclusively through ticketmaster.com. Mysteriously, at that same exact time and day, ticketmaster.com’s website began experiencing “technical difficulties” and Springsteen fans could not purchase any tickets to the Boss’ shows. Instead, conspicuously placed on the same ticketmaster.com screen that informed fans that the website was experiencing “technical difficulties,” was an alternative purchasing option from TicketsNow.com, offering the very same Springsteen tickets for hundreds of dollars more than the face value of the tickets.
Thousands of other Bruce Springsteen fans who were able to get beyond the “technical difficulties” which ticketmaster.com was allegedly experiencing were informed that all tickets for all shows across the country were already sold out. They too were conspicuously re-directed to TicketsNow.com where they could elect to purchase tickets for the “sold out” shows for 10 to 50 times the face value of the tickets.
What Bruce Springsteen fans did not know was that in a recent effort to expand its business and profits, Ticketmaster acquired TicketsNow.com, a website which specializes in the secondary, resale market for tickets. Indeed, TicketsNow.com is a fully owned subsidiary of Ticketmaster, and any tickets purchased on TicketsNow.com are essentially being purchased from Ticketmaster itself, albeit at an obscene mark-up.
Ticketmaster’s conduct in the sale of these tickets has not only enraged fans of Bruce Springsteen and the Boss himself, it has also sparked a Congressional inquiry into Ticketmaster’s business practices. United States Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) has requested that the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) investigate Ticketmaster’s relationship with its subsidiary TicketsNow.com, and their handling of ticket sales for the Bruce Springsteen tour. Representative Pascrell’s letter to the DOJ and the FTC can be read here.
The fact that ticketmaster.com experienced “technical problems” at the exact time that Bruce Springsteen tickets were to be sold, and the speed with which tickets were made available on TicketsNow.com – a fully owned subsidiary of Ticketmaster – raises serious questions about Ticketmaster’s business practices and whether it engaged it deliberate and intentional deceptive business practices.
If you were forced to purchase one or more Bruce Springsteen tickets through TicketsNow.com at prices above the face value of the tickets because you were barred from purchasing tickets at ticketmaster.com, please contact us to discuss your legal options.
They same thing happen for the Dave Matthews Band spring tour, which went on sale on Jan.20th...this is such a fraud.
The same thing happened for Phish at Hampton Coliseum. Tickets went on sale in October for the March Shows. I guess the hippies don't carry as much power as the Boss' fans. Well I'm glad that they finally pissed off the right people. Maybe they will finally get these criminals!
This has been happening all year. This happened to my wife when she bought Seattle Seahawks tickets for me for my birthday. I will never purchase from ticketmaster again.
this is all great, but why are the tickets still selling for 165. and up. The stadium will be empty.What's the point of still having the concert,no one will pay that anyway
We bought the tickets for the show at the TDBankNorth Garden in Boston and the same thing happened. We were also directed to TicketsNow where we paid $470.35 for 2 tickets with a face value of $97.50 each. I remember when Bruce was committed to keeping his ticket prices low for regular guys - it seems like Ticketmaster has no respect for Bruce and his fans.
yes. ticketmaster is evil. glad to see someone fights back with a vengence.
We were fraudulently redirected to Tickets Now as the tickets were being sold for American Express Pre-Sale and paid over double the price of the tickets. This has been a nightmare for us.
The same thing is going on for US OPEN TENNIS mens final sales.I called at 9am and waited on hold til 9.10 and was told its sold out.The only tickets i can find on ticketsnow,stubhub etc are sssoooooo marked up.WHEN is the $2 mark up law in place???Who lets this happen?Its a rip off.C'mon.