Ticketmaster Smacked With Another Lawsuit – This One For $250 Million
Get Social!
The new lawsuit, filed Thursday in an Ontario (Canada) Superior Court, was initiated by an Edmonton resident who separately bought tickets for comedian Jay Leno and recording artist David Byrne. The lawsuit alleges that the fees that Ticketmaster piles up on the face value of tickets violates Ontario’s anti-scalping legislation.
According to reports, the Leno ticket carried a face value of $79, but ended up costing $84.60 after all the fees were included, and the Byrne ticket started at $55.50 but ended up costing $71.75. Lawyers for the plaintiff said the fees allegedly violate an Ontario law that says tickets cannot be sold for a price above their original asking price.
Because of the wording in Ticketmaster’ small print, tickets for shows in Canada are protected specifically by Ontario’s laws.
This comes after a $500 million lawsuit alleging that Ticketmaster conspired to maneuver customers away from the main site to its ticket-brokering website, which sells tickets at a much higher price. The first lawsuit alleges Ticketmaster purposely redirects fans to its TicketsNow subsidiary where tickets sell for a premium, a complaint similar to one recently logged by rocker Bruce Springsteen. Ticketmaster has vehemently denied the allegation.
Albert Lopez, a spokesman for Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc., said, “There is categorically no movement of stock, inventory if you will, from Ticketmaster into the resale market at TicketsNow.com” and refused to comment on either of the lawsuits.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!