TMCnet News
Boss flap has pols probing Ticketmaster(amNewYork Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Feb. 9--Bruce Springsteen may be the Boss, but two local pols are the ones calling for a federal probe into Ticketmaster's partnership with a subsidiary reselling tickets at inflated prices for the rocker's new tour. "It's a classic bait and switch," said Sen. Charles Schumer, standing with New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. outside Madison Square Garden Sunday. After Springsteen tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. last Monday for his "Working on a Dream Tour", many fans trying to buy seats on Ticketmaster.com were instead directed to TicketsNow.com, where they found seats for nearly five times the price, said Pascrell, a Democrat who represents Passaic County. TicketsNow is a resell web site owned and operated Ticketmaster. Tickets originally ranged from roughly $40 to $100 for the shows, including ones at the Meadowlands and Nassau Coliseum. Pascrell said he received hundreds of calls and letters from frustrated fans across the country. The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs also reported getting more than a thousand complaints. "You've got thieves on Wall Street and thieves on Main Street, now there's thieves on Broadway," Pascrell said. Springsteen also criticized the ticketing practice last week, and Ticketmaster issued an apology and agreed to not direct fans to TicketsNow. Ticketmaster charges facility, convenience and order processing fees, adding as much as 20 to 30 percent to the seat price. The company has stated it usually receives a 15 percent commission on sales at TicketsNow. Ticket reselling is legal, but officials have called for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Ticketmaster's promotion of TicketsNow for the Springsteen tour, the profit earned and why so many seatswere being resold so quickly. Schumer and Pascrell saidthat Ticketmaster has steered fans to TicketsNow for previous shows. Ticketmaster and TicketsNow did not return calls for comment Sunday. On Friday, TicketsNow issued a statement saying that it has prohibited the sale of tickets before seats become publicly available "to prevent the posting of speculative tickets." Schumer and Pascrell also criticized a possible merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the largest producer of live concerts in the world. The companies were reported to announce the $400 million merger as soon as today. Pascrell and Schumer wrote to the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division to investigate whether the merger could create a monopoly that would inflate ticket prices. In conversations with Ticketmaster last week, Pascrell said that the event giant agreed to reimburse fans who bought overly costly tickets. "They have admitted that this is a convoluted process," Pascrell said. The four-month tour for Springsteen and the E Street Band kicks off in April. To see more of amNewYork, go to http://www.amny.com. Copyright (c) 2009, amNewYork, New York Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |