There are new concerns about Ticketmaster and ticket reselling tonight from some pretty impressive quarters.
Tickets for Bruce Springsteen's Toronto concert went on sale today. But before fans even had a chance to buy them --they went on sale on a re-sellers site. The boss is furious and the feds are being asked to investigate.
Bruce Springsteen usually sells out his concerts in minutes - so to get tickets fans have to be quick. When Kate Blazo was using the Ticketmaster website she couldn't get thorough. But she was directed to Tickets Now - which had hundreds of Springsteen tickets for sale - but at four to five times the cost.
Tickets Now is a ticket reselling website owned by Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster says it operates the site for people who have bought tickets but then need to sell them because they can't get to the show.
But Wednesday more than 150 tickets for Toronto's May 7th concert were briefly for sale, some priced as high as $900 even though the tickets for the Toronto show didn't go on sale until today at noon.
That concerns Mel Fruitman of the Consumers' Association of Canada.
"It seems to support the theory that they are automatically flipping tickets over and someone hit the button too soon," he said
It also concerns the Boss himself. In an open letter to fans, Bruce Springsteen wrote "the abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you. We will continue to do our utmost now and in the future to make sure that these practices are permanently curtailed on our tours." Springsteen called the situation a clear conflict of interest and asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.
And there is also concern Ticketmaster may merge with Live Nation another ticket seller which could stifle competition.
But it may not be a case of gauging here. A possible explanation is that some people who have special privileges to buy have made arrangements to do so and agreed in advance to sell to Ticketmaster's reselling arm Tickets Now. That's done in the reselling world -- but an investigation would answer the questions and get to the bottom of it for sure. -- could be something for the Competition Bureau to look at.
In the meantime, it's a market and prices fluctuate. Prices can come down closer to a concert date or if prices are too high -- just don't go.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen
