Ticketmaster Probed on Secondary Sales; Backs Schumer Bill

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 6, 2009 - 10:13am.

Washington - Ticketmaster (NASD: TKTM) has been subpoenaed or received requests for information from the Justice Dept., Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and New Jersey's Attorney General over the resale of tickets on secondary ticketing websites, Reuters reported, citing TicketNews.com. Bruce Springsteen and many of his fans complained when they were recently directed to purchase tickets at greatly inflated prices on Ticketmaster's TicketsNow secondary ticket sales website before all available tickets to the concerts on Ticketmaster.com were sold out.

A similar investigation into Ticketmaster's secondary ticket sales is also underway in Canada.

Ticketmaster has called the redirection of ticketbuyers a computer glitch.

The company is also currently undergoing federal antitrust scrutiny for its proposed $2.5 billion merger with concert promotion giant Live Nation (NYSE: LYV).

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is opposed to the proposed merger, plans to introduce a bill this week that would prohibit all secondary ticket sales until two days after tickets are first made available for purchase.

"It's simply unfair that you either need to be a computer hacker or made of money to go see Bruce Springsteen or U2 or the Mets or the Yankees," Schumer told a press conference, according to TicketNews.

Schumer said in a press release that Ticketmaster supports his bill.

"I am very happy to support Sen. Schumer's thoughtful proposal and leadership on this issue," said Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff.

"Ticketmaster recognizes that the ticket resale industry needs far-reaching changes to better protect consumers and ensure fair access to tickets. Staggering the resale process to commence 48 hours after an onsale is a very important step in reforming the process and bringing transparency to the onsale process.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/fcyi (Reuters)

http://snipurl.com/fcz50 (TicketNews)

http://snipurl.com/fcyoh (TicketNews on Schumer bill)

http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/record.cfm?id=311221&