Global ticketing giant Ticketmaster has been accused of colluding with scalpers.
CBC News and Toronto Star have reportedly spent the past seven months monitoring Ticketmaster’s website in relation to Bruno Mars’ Toronto show this weekend, claiming the company is partnering with scalpers among other things to “boost its profits at the expense of music fans”.
The in-depth investigation found that Ticketmaster increased ticket prices in the hours and days after they went on sale depending on how popular they were and they’ve also been accused of not putting all tickets on sale initially.
Instead, the company was found to have released cheaper tickets slowly in order to sell those at a higher price point first.
"We also do not determine when tickets are available for purchase or how they are allocated — those decisions are communicated to us by our client, the venue, after consultation with the event presenter,” Ticketmaster told CBC in response to the claims.
On top of that, CBC News claims that Ticketmaster is recruiting professional scalpers for its new reseller program, TradeDesk, an invite-only proprietary platform that allows users to buy tickets in bulk and then resell them for a higher price.
Two reporters posing as scalpers were sent to a live-entertainment conference in Las Vegas in July, where Ticketmaster representatives allegedly pitched TradeDesk to them.
The reporters claim the representatives told them Ticketmaster’s resale sector turns a blind eye to scalpers who use bots to purchase tickets then resell them at a higher price.
