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Ticketmaster defend add-on ticket resale service
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 5 January 2009
Ticketmaster has defended its expansion into the secondary ticketing business.
As previously reported, the ticketing giant last year bought two ticket resale websites, TicketsNow in North America and Get Me In Here in the UK. This despite opposition in parts of the live music industry towards the growth of online ticket touting, and resentment by some promoters towards the online auction services which allow punters to resell tickets for a profit.
Since acquiring TicketsNow, the Ticketmaster website in the US and Canada will redirect consumers to the auction service for concerts it is not selling tickets to or for which it has sold out its allocation.
The Consumers’ Association Of Canada recently said that that was wrong, because it meant that customers who think they are buying tickets from a legitimate agency when they go to the Ticketmaster website may in fact end up buying a marked-up ticket from a dodgy tout via the TicketsNow platform.
The CAC’s Vice-President Mel Fruitman told reporters: “It’s a conflict, it’s a monopoly, it’s unconscionable. It may not be illegal, but it sure is immoral and unethical as far as I’m concerned”.
Ticketmaster VP Joe Freeman disagrees.
He responded by telling reporters he thought the link through to TicketsNow provided added value for consumers looking for tickets for shows no longer available via primary ticket sellers, adding that online touting was a good thing because it saved customers the hassle of having to go to the venue on the off chance they can buy secondary tickets on the street.
He added that TicketsNow offered protection to punters buying tickets via resellers.
He told reporters: “If you’re buying a ticket from a guy under the overpass by the Air Canada Centre, you don’t know if those are going to be valid tickets until you’re in the door. We’re trying to bring a much higher level of consumer protection to the whole resale space”.
