Ticketmaster Allegedly Supporting Scalpers

[EvilRoy]

The CBC recently released part 1 of an investigative series on good old ticketmaster, apparently revealing that TM has developed tools to aid scalpers in buying and reselling tickets. TM seems to take a cut on the initial ticket sale, and another cut on the scalpers sale, effectively letting them double dip on sales in exchange for artificially inflating ticket prices.

I figured this would be interesting for the forum given we have congoers and release night movie watchers here. Im curious to know: has anyone here bought scalped tickets to get in on an event?

I'm guilty of a few football game ticket purchases for sure, but I've never done it for anytging particularly exclusive or tough to get in on.

Original CBC Story: https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4828535

Edit:

Whoops. This apparently not "part one", the thing I read indicating a series was actually on a different story the cbc/ts are doing on price hiking and ticket rrsale which is only referenced in this article.

Update Sept 21 2018:

In a move that surprises everyone to an appropriate extent I'm sure, TM responded saying that they don't like scalpers and they are running a full internal investigation. This investigation was performed previousy by CBC/TS where it was shown this is happening and apparently supported by TM, but I guess TM wants to do their own better investigation. I dunno, the statement just reads very weird to me.

I have no idea if this is legal or illegal or what to be honest. If they were bookies on a horserace I was gambling on I would break their fingers, but commodity resale is very grey to me.

 

[Kyrian007]

The scalping laws in the US really aren't enforced much at all. Generally because people buying scalped tickets are willing to pay the price the scalpers are asking for, or don't know what they are doing is illegal. And since the loss is borne by everyone buying tickets to the event, it seems like a crime that isn't hurting anyone. I work at a radio station, we get lots of promotional tickets to a variety of events. And you'd be surprised how much paperwork there is involved in giving away "free" tickets. For any prize over $100 (which these days is most "pair" of ticket packages) we have to be able to provide the social security numbers of winners to either the authorities or the ticket retailer in the event that someone tries to "flip" their ticket. We have a database of winner information that goes back several years and yet corporate wide (stations in over 200 markets in the U.S.) we have to access that database once or twice a year... if that.

All I can really tell people is a couple of things to keep in mind. If the ticket someone is trying to sell you has no printed price on it... it is a fake ticket and will not get you in to the event. A legal ticket to a legal event must by law have the price printed on it, even promotional tickets will have a price of $0.00 printed somewhere on it. A seller is legally obligated to tell you the printed value of the ticket they are trying to sell, anyone who won't is a scammer or scalper. And here's a surprising one; a scalper is ONLY someone who is trying to sell you a ticket for a price ABOVE the printed value. It is legal for anyone to sell a ticket for the value printed on it or less. It may not be legal to do so in specific areas around the venue, but that is subject to local laws specific to the area where the venue is. The one exception to the above printed value rule is for charity auctions... and again there is a lot of paperwork involved in that including waivers for the person winning the auction to sign and a legal and tax papertrail that has to be created by the charity involved.

And those are just things to keep in mind if you are worried about the legitimacy of a ticket purchase you have or may be intending to make, keeping in mind of course these rules are barely ever enforced.

 

[Baffle]

Ticketmaster sell tickets to watch films? Like, at the cinema? That's weird to me.

I'm mostly annoyed by booking fees, especially per ticket booking fees, and double especially for home-printing or digital-ticket events.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Have noticed a general consensus of distrust and contempt towards Ticketmaster from artists and performers over time. tweren't for nought twould seem.

 

[EvilRoy]

Ticketmaster sell tickets to watch films? Like, at the cinema? That's weird to me.

I'm mostly annoyed by booking fees, especially per ticket booking fees, and double especially for home-printing or digital-ticket events.

Its only really done for huge releases or special advanced screenings that you otherwise need to be invited to as far as i know. Ive certainly stuck to the Cineplex website and been fine but i am aware of friends using ticketmaster to get in on stuff at the theater.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

[sub]Never liked them.[/sub]

 

[RaikuFA]

And people wonder why I don?t go to concerts or conventions.

Fuck the music industry.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

And people wonder why I don?t go to concerts or conventions.

Fuck the music industry.

Plenty of concerts don't go through ticketmaster. Only the big artists do for the most part.

 

[RaikuFA]

And people wonder why I don?t go to concerts or conventions.

Fuck the music industry.

Plenty of concerts don't go through ticketmaster. Only the big artists do for the most part.

In NJ it?s the only way to enjoy concerts. Hence why lesser known acts don?t perform in this state.

 

[Agema]

The CBC recently released part 1 of an investigative series on good old ticketmaster, apparently revealing that TM has developed tools to aid scalpers in buying and reselling tickets. TM seems to take a cut on the initial ticket sale, and another cut on the scalpers sale, effectively letting them double dip on sales in exchange for artificially inflating ticket prices.

There have been a lot issues with these sites in the UK; also absurd booking fees, etc. The main scumbag site in the UK seems to be Viagogo. They've had a lot of issues: false advertising, false claims about ticket guarantees, fake reviews to gnerate ticket price increases, etc. They seem to me to be companies with no interest in anything but expanding their bottom line by any means they think they can get away with. Bit like Uber, basically: all hustle, laws just there to be flouted or challenged, etc.

Selling on tickets is big business. There have been lots of complaints (from customers, artists, etc.), and these firms say they'll do something about it, but they never really seem to. As you say, what's their motivation?

 

[Xprimentyl]

I generally think of small-time scalping as a victimless crime, ?small-time? qualified as ?I purchased/received the tickets legitimately, and now can?t/don?t want to go, and here?s what I?m charging over face value as a ?service/convenience fee? to pocket some cash for the effort of offloading them.? I, for one, would never dream of paying the exorbitant prices scalpers tend to charge, but if you?ve got the cash and are willing to, hell, it?s no skin off my ass; enjoy the show. And sometimes, it?s only fair; if I buy nosebleed tickets to a sold-out show two months in advance, and John and Jane Doe wait until the day of and manage front row, center stage, I can only hope they paid out their procrastinating asses for the privilege.

But, if ticket monopolies are clandestinely partnering with bulk ticket flippers, that?s just shitty. I wonder how much their direct ticket prices are inflated, if even a little, to compensate for any cost/losses related to this surreptitious endeavor? There?s a special place in hell for levels of greed like this?

 

[EvilRoy]

For anyone who was interested in this one, we had some stuff shake loose over the weekend and Monday that's worth hearing.

First, they done getting sued:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ticketmaster-resellers-lawsuits-1.4834668

Or at least, they probably will be. There are law firms fishing for people to join up on a class action suit, which means they feel there isn't a bad chance of coming out of this with some sweet sweet fees. I'm not 100% on how class action suits work in the states, but in Canada they are generally punitive in nature. No individual gets that much of a payout in the case of a win because no matter how much the value is it gets split very finely between a lot of people. The more people you have with legitimate claims, the higher the payout, the finer the split, so you won't get much more than a free meal most of the time. However, the law firm sucks up a nice fat percentage of the total payout value as their fee - and they don't get paid without a win. For a law firm to say "we want you to hire us to sue them in a class action suit" is a huge sign that there is a case to be made.



Second, we have an exclusive interview with the Ticket Master himself:

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8476697/ticketmaster-president-tradedesk-scandal-exclusive-interview

He really goes for it when claiming that supporting brokers is not something TM is into, and tries to sell their secondary market as a necessary evil when it comes to controlling ticket resale. The argument is that reselling is always going to exist, and their system verifies tickets when others don't - that is, ticketmaster secondary sales are guaranteed to be real tickets as opposed to kijiji or craigslist which could be a poorly xeroxed reproduction of a ticket to the wrong concert.


---
Me:
I dunno. The investigative report by CBC is pretty compelling considering how far they went in providing a very unpleasant view of what happened at this convention. I can't really think of a good reason why they would bother misrepresenting TM to come out with a story like this. There's always the easy pick of current American politics for the clicks if easy ratings was all they wanted, and its not like TM has been public enemy number 1. They might have a virtual monopoly on a lot of type of ticket sales, but its one of those monopolies where nobody cares because we can't possibly believe seeing the Beach Boys on tour would cost less than a few hundred bucks anyway. On top of that is the fact that artist has a say in what ticket prices set. I might not like that TM charges bullshit fees, but the majority of the wallet munching I feel in exchange for seeing Marylin Manson in person is attributable to the artist first and the service fees second.

I don't really care that they verify secondary ticket sales. Its nice I guess, but I've kijijied enough crap to know that if you buy from some dude in a hoodie who actually managed to smell like meth even though that shouldn't be possible, then you rolled the dice and you got what you got.

Unless TM can provide something (in court or out per update 1 of 2) that casts real doubt on what CBC produced, I don't see a reason to disbelieve them.