海角社区官网Star investigative reporter Rob Cribb, left, went undercover at a scalpers鈥 convention in Las Vegas. Posing as a small-time scalper from Canada, Cribb talks to a representative from Ticketmaster鈥檚 resale arm.
The Star went undercover to expose how Ticketmaster colludes with scalpers. The probe is now at the heart of a major FTC lawsuit
The joint 海角社区官网Star/CBC investigation聽exposed Ticketmaster employees reassuring undercover scalper that they could use bots to gobble up box office tickets 鈥 in breach of both Ticketmaster鈥檚 terms of use and U.S. and Canadian law.
海角社区官网Star investigative reporter Rob Cribb, left, went undercover at a scalpers鈥 convention in Las Vegas. Posing as a small-time scalper from Canada, Cribb talks to a representative from Ticketmaster鈥檚 resale arm.
A 海角社区官网Star/CBC investigation into Ticketmaster鈥檚 collusion with scalpers to resell hundreds of thousands of tickets to sports and music events at inflated prices forms the backbone of a new U.S. consumer-protection lawsuit against the world鈥檚 biggest ticketing company.
Posing as small-time scalpers, Star and CBC reporters talked to representatives of Ticketmaster鈥檚 resale division who said the company wants to
The groundbreakingundercover investigationfeatured reporters, posing as scalpers, who received assurances from Ticketmaster employees that they could use bots with impunity to mass purchase box office tickets well beyond the limit for regular customers鈥 in breach of both Ticketmaster鈥檚 terms of use and U.S. and Canadian law. Ticketmaster even designed a special platform for scalpers to facilitate reselling tickets bought using hundreds of different accounts and invited the reporters to sign up.
Filed last week in U.S. federal court, the new lawsuit alleges that Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation used deceptive pricing tactics that ultimately cost consumers billions in inflated prices and fees for tickets illegally acquired by the brokers.
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Brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and seven U.S. states, the lawsuit is the latest in a series of cases, including multiple class actions certified in Canada, that build upon information revealed in the Star/CBC investigation.
鈥淭he FTC alleges that in public, Ticketmaster maintains that its business model is at odds with brokers that routinely exceed ticket limits. But in private, Ticketmaster acknowledged that its business model and bottom line benefit from brokers preventing ordinary Americans from purchasing tickets to the shows they want to see at the prices artists set,鈥 the U.S. consumer protection agency wrote in a press release.
The FTC is an independent agency of the U.S. government that is tasked with enforcing civil antitrust laws and guarding against unfair and deceptive business practices. Neither the FTC nor Ticketmaster responded to a request for comment.
海角社区官网Star and CBC reporters went undercover at Ticketmaster鈥檚 Las Vegas Ticket Summit in July. They found that the company works with scalpers who sell hundreds of thousands of tickets every year 鈥 in direct violation of its own terms of use.
Hidden camera video from the Star/CBC investigation has been cited in several lawsuits, with lawyers saying it has been particularly helpful to have evidence straight from the mouths of Ticketmaster employees.
鈥淵ou guys were the ones who broke this thing open,鈥 said Jean-Marc Leclerc, lead counsel for the class action suit filed in Ontario, which . 鈥淚t was your investigation that gave us all of the inside information, the hidden camera videos with the Ticketmaster people.鈥
In 2018, reporters from the Star and CBC travelled to a convention in Las Vegas posing as small-time Canadian ticket scalpers. They approached the Ticketmaster booth and listened as sales staff pitched a proprietary software program called TradeDesk, designed to help bulk buyers resell thousands of tickets.
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Asking if Ticketmaster would bust them for using illegal bots or multiple Ticketmaster accounts, the reporters were told they had nothing to worry about.聽
鈥淲e鈥檝e spent millions of dollars on this (TradeDesk) tool, so that last thing we want to do is, you know, get brokers caught up to where they can鈥檛 sell inventory with us. Or kind of like another way to think of it, we鈥檙e not trying to build a better mousetrap,鈥 the Ticketmaster employee said.
This attitude represented a significant shift in the ticketing industry鈥檚 attitude toward scalpers, the investigation found. Before online box offices, sellers did everything they could to crack down on scalpers working on the pavement outside venues. Now, the secondary market represents a way to increase revenues.聽
鈥淭icketmaster loves resale tickets, provided they are sold on their site, because it means they make more money,鈥 Leclerc said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty pretty simple: They get a fee when the ticket is sold on the primary market to the first customer, and then they get extra fees if the ticket goes on their resale site.鈥
The allegations in the FTC suit mirror those found in the Ontario class action, Leclerc said, but add key internal Ticketmaster documents that corroborate the Star and CBC鈥檚 findings.
One spreadsheet in particular lists five resellers who collectively controlled 6,345 Ticketmaster accounts and possessed 246,407 concert tickets. The internal Ticketmaster spreadsheet notes 鈥渟erious negative economic impact鈥 if the company moves to an eight-ticket limit for all buyers.
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The records show that Ticketmaster has 鈥渋nternal records showing that they know full well the resellers have hundreds of accounts (and) 鈥 saying if we restrict these guys from buying tickets, this is going to have a massive impact on our revenues,鈥 Leclerc said.
The use of automated computer software to get around ticket purchase limits is banned by many states and provinces. The use of multiple accounts to buy tickets for a single person or company is banned by Ticketmaster鈥檚 own terms of use.
In Ontario, the Ticket Sales Act has a wide range of potential penalties, right up to a full refund of the price paid for a resale ticket.
鈥淪o if you paid 500 bucks for your Taylor Swift tickets, if it is found that Ticketmaster knew that bots had been used to purchase those tickets, there is a potential for an outright refund of the $500 you paid,鈥 Leclerc said.
The next step for the class action will be an email, sent out in the coming months to Canadians (excluding residents of B.C., who have a separate lawsuit) who bought a resale ticket on Ticketmaster since Jan 1, 2015 鈥 an estimated 700,000 to 900,000 people.聽
Marco Chown Oved is a Toronto-based climate change reporter for
the Star. Reach him via email: moved@thestar.ca.
