Springsteen Ticket Scalping Angers Lawmaker
TicketMaster sold out of tickets to Bruce Springsteen's upcoming concert tour within minutes. Minutes later, the same tickets showed up as available – at much higher prices – through TicketMaster’s affiliate, Internet-based ticket reseller TicketsNow. Does that seem wrong? Does it seem even more wrong that TicketMaster now wants to buy Live Nation, the world’s largest producer of live concerts? U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-New Jersey) thinks it’s an absolute wreck on the highway that could leave consumers held up without a gun.
Faster than a guy who was born to run, Rep. Pascrell fired off a letter to the House Judiciary Committee praising Springsteen for his condemnation of TicketMaster’s actions and asking the Committee to take a close look at the proposed TicketMaster/Live Nation merger for anti-trust violations.
"[T]here is an incredible potential for abuse when one company controls the primary and secondary market for concert tickets," stated Rep. Pascrell in his letter. "That potential will surely be magnified exponentially should one company be able to control every aspect of recording, record sales, licensing, venue ownership and ticket sales."
Federal anti-trust laws are intended to protect both consumers and competing companies from unfair business practices, such as price-fixing schemes, monopolies and bid-rigging.
Photo: The Boss at the Super Bowl by Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Also See:
The Great Microsoft Anti-trust Case of 1999
FTC Blocks Costly Generic Drug Monopoly
Comments
tickets are a rip off resale or not
I thought the Ticketmaster sale was going to be on the up and up. So when I heard they added two more shows I would have a good chance to get 4 tickets. I logged on the Ticketmaster web sight at 1150 am and made sure my credit card info was up to date – all was good. At 12pm on the dot the Springsteen Tickets became active so I clicked on any available seats and selected 4 seats and entered the code then it went to 3 minute wait then started climbing to 15 minutes after about 9 minutes it came back to me as no match found. NO MATCH FOUND!!! (WTF) I gave it 3 more tries and even picked 2 tickets – after 30 minutes with the same result – I gave up and turned the computer off. I they really want the fans to get the tickets and not the scalpers the should make a 2 or 4 tickets max and credit card used to buy the tickets must be match at the event – PROBLEM SOLVED – This not only makes Ticketmaster look bad but also makes the fans loose interest in the groups. I remember standing on line for over 20 hours for tickets for Springsteen back then you had to earn your ticket and now you just get ripped off and I feel it is a given and the promoters are in on it. Thanks for shutting the fans out AGAIN!!! Have Fun Performing to all the Corporate Big Wig Family and the Ripped off Fans that were taken along with the Few Lucky Fans that were Very Lucky to get their tickets on Ticketmaster (probably nose bleeds) the scrap tickets. Thanks for the memories. Locked Out Fan.
Well it’s nice to know that Ticketmaster is now admitting that Bruce withholds thousands of ticket for Bruce’s closest and bands member’s friends. This reminds me of Ford vs. Firestone. With Bruce being Ford and Ticketmaster being Firestone and Ford telling Firestone to keep it low key and don’t blame Ford for changing the recommended tire pressure on their Explorers so it drove more like a car rather the a truck. Then Ford comes out and slams Firestone months later. So if you do the math for the five concerts in NJ only and holding back 2,000 to 3,500 tickets would equal 10,000 to 17,500 of the best seats. This explains why the close seat goes for thousands of dollars on scalping web sites sometimes prior to the tickets release date and even days after. Hello Bruce wake up! Did you ever think of checking those floor seat tickets numbers and see who your “close friends” are using you making money by ripping off your true fans? I thought an artist wants to perform to his loyal supporting fans and maybe give a handful of tickets to each member of the band and rowdies. I never hear the super bowl and word series players locking out 3,500 tickets. They only get 5 to 10 tickets per player which is fair. Maybe you could pick one night to perform only to your closest “FRIENDS” and only they can attend and those tickets have their name on it and cannot be sold. Then you can see who really are you close friends and show up. Remember they don’t pay your salary the “TRUE FANS” do. Unlike you many of your fans have not had a pay raise in years; got hours cut, and lost their jobs. Maybe a night out would of made them happy for one night and bring back some memories of your good old days. Enjoy playing in front of your friends resold tickets. I remember one time you heard about a tickets scam back in the 80’s and brought the entire tops nose bleed section to the floor area. That is the Bruce I want to remember. But it is hard to believe this is the same person. It must be nice to be rich as in the words you wrote – “rich man wanna be king and a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything”. Well you are rich and you rule your fans tickets.